Thinking about "resolutions"
I started a list of New Year's Resolutions -- who can resist the opportunity for a fresh start as the hard-partying, self-indulgent, stressful holiday season ends and winter closes in? I love the promise of self-reform. Maybe it's the Catholic in me who remembers the joy of the confessional -- promising to sin no more, and being forgiven -- slate wiped clean, soul all gleaming white -- the immaculate moment.
But when I looked at the list I jotted down, I saw that my resolutions were really projects I needed to complete -- priorities. Necessary but not aspirational, not inspirational.
More reflecting on my year:
- Spiritual reading has led me to stop thinking about mission (imposing my worldview on others) and to think more in terms of pilgrimage (wayfaring toward my own destination, maybe not yet discovered).
- Philosophical reading got me thinking about shifting from producing pieces of "art" to being the art or living life as art.
The consequences of Jim's car accident and hospital visits (one car, more coordinated time together, cancelled vacation) got me thinking that perhaps we were drifting along in a muffled old comfort zone anyway and that we need to re-energize ourselves in new ways, together.- Rearranging our displayed art/artifacts (for company and in prep for more inventorying) reignited my enthusiasm around living with art and sharing it with others. Engaging with it, using it as a tool to engage with others, learning from it... all really more important than selling off the items we're less interested in.
Rethinking
So I have out the "job description" I did as part of last year's resolution-making process. I'd thought it would hold up for another year, but now I've tweaked it (Click on diagram below for full-size PDF)... recasted it slightly so that it's (slightly) less mock-corporate and more about living deeply. As always, it's a draft to be built upon.
If there is anything I've learned from playing too much "Plants vs. Zombies" over the holidays, it's that harvesting energy (from the pacifist sunflowers) is the first priority, before you can go on offense. And so my early emphasis will be on "capacity-building" -- more sunflowers, fewer pea-shooters... Stay tuned.
1.2.2011
