This year holds so much for my family and me. With baby #2 coming in February, I'm excited, nervous, and prepared to be awed by 2024. I'm not sure that I can set specific goals for accomplishing anything in particular when I need to make so much room in my world for a new great love, but I thought I'd jot down a few things that I can return to and ruminate on as I go.
Quick & Abstract Hopes
Swim with the current. Come back to myself. Meet the world anew. Play board games. Prepare the small things that will help. Seize occasions for celebration. Gaze into my babies' eyes. Hold the dogs. Fill a notebook.
Creative Practice
Lean into pottery-making as meditation, engaging in intentional practice without the pressure to produce a finished piece. Involve Jasper. Make things for myself, for loved ones, for the home. Don't hold back. Don't be daunted. Recognize mistakes and let them go. Challenge myself. Take baby steps, but orient them toward big ideas.
Home
As little clutter as necessary. Cozy bedding always. Take care of the indoor plants. Tend to our garden and nurture from it color, beauty, surprise, and knowledge for future seasons.
Endeavor to...
Once again greet the too-early mornings with fondness. The hours before dawn while the house was still and quiet were often a silver lining to the chaos and disorientation during those newborn days with Jasper.
Maintain, at the very least, physical proximity with Kev to combat the overwhelm of man-on-man parenting that we'll experience for the first time.
Let go of things that have outlived their stay.
Return here and there to reading, knitting, carving, and other activities that are just for me.
Honor the hard moments and protect myself as I pass through them. Then, unfurl my full self back toward the sun.
Recognize found time and feel grateful for it.
Pay less attention to the urge to keep up. Trust that I will be "productive" again.