I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but given the way my year is going already, maybe I should resolve to do one new thing every day. So far here are my “firsts”:
January 1: Danced in the DJ booth at a club.
I had a great time ringing in 2009 to the sounds of Basement Bhangra even though we were at this massive crazy party, with more dreadlocked white people than I knew existed on this planet. Picture Burning Man inside a convention center, and you’ve got the vibe. (Note to ravers: do *not* go up into the DJ booth unless you know the DJ or a member of her/his entourage personally, otherwise it’s annoying, especially if the DJ booth is actually a camping tent set up on a rickety platform and you dance so hard that you make the whole thing quake. Um, no.) I wore my tiara and hot pink go-go boots and felt like one of the cool kids.
January 2: Hired an assistant.
I’m so grateful and relieved to be able to have help during what is going to be an intensely busy time. Jessica is a smart, competent, high school student artist who happens to live right around the corner from me. It still feels weird to say “my assistant,” and she’ll only be here a few hours a week, but I have a feeling she will greatly increase my capacity to stay on top of things and get ready for the book launch which is a mere 10-11 weeks away.
January 3: Participated in a sweatlodge ceremony.
A deeply contemplative way to start the year. I did this at Spirit Rock, where I’ve been on several meditation retreats before, as part of a daylong event for women of color. I’m still not sure how I feel about participating in a Native tradition to which I have very little connection and am a total outsider. Still, I appreciated the opportunity to be in the dark, moist heat of spiritual community and commune with earth, fire, water, air, Spirit, and ancestors.
January 4: Bought an original painting from a friend.
My super-talented artist friend Anita De Lucio had me over sometime last year, and I couldn’t keep my eyes away from a luminescent turquoise fish on her wall. When I mustered up the courage to ask her if the painting was for sale, and she said yes, I was totally delighted! I was thinking about scuba diving, about water as my element (I’m a Cancer), and about my name which means fish. After I picked up the painting today, Anita sent me an email that read, in part: “Fishy was yours the moment you set eyes on her! Ever since you said you wanted the painting it stopped feeling like it was mine, and it was just waiting until the time came to go to its new home! … Fishy helped me find hope when the war in Iraq started. Painting her was very soothing, my brush strokes are a little ‘messier’ than in my other paintings, simply cuz I just painted as it came to me. She’s kind of a fantasy fish and a reminder to me that anything is possible. I hope she will keep you company and encourage you in this time of transition.”
I don’t know if I’ll keep up *quite* this pace for the rest of the year, but I do like the idea and intention of being open to trying new things … maybe even one new thing, however small, each day.
What are you doing new in 2009?