“You have to begin telling your story in a new way. You have to tell it as you want it to be.” – Abraham Hicks

What is your theme for 2010 going to be? Ever since I started blogging I have been choosing a theme for my new year rather than making resolutions. Every year so far I have chosen big, brave words to try to live up to. It has been exhausting. So this year I was feeling very uncomfortable about the whole thing. I tried on words like ‘Abundance’ and ‘Brave’ and ‘Wild’ only to have my throat close up and my shoulders get all tense. I was getting nowhere.

Then I read this post by my friend Jessie and I had one of those moments when you hear the click – yes! – my shoulders released, my jaw relaxed, and I felt like I had been freed. I had found it – my word for 2010 – and I thank Jessie for the inspiration. My theme this year is going to be Relief!

It may not sound grand to you, but it fits just right for me. Relief will mean having more money than bills. Relief will mean having money for flights home and Squam and spending Christmas with my family. Relief will mean finally feeling comfortable in my skin. Relief will mean finding an agent and a publisher for my book. Relief will mean that I finally finish what I have started before leaping big and brave and bold into new ventures. Relief will mean time with friends and a happy, comfortable, warm, nurturing home. Relief will mean that 2010 is a wonderful, wonderful year!

[I learned my first lesson quickly. My scanner won't work so I was trying to get a great photograph of my New Year's Eve/ Blue Moon/ Partial Eclipse Dream Board and I ended up spending way too much time on that and not enough with my sweet husband on New Year's Eve - so the picture is rubbish, but the board is good and I am off to do what is important and snuggle in to welcome the New Year!]

A happiest of new years to you and yours.

You are loved.

xo

“Give your soul a voice and reconnect with the messy, colourful, musical, sensual, experimental, fully engaged, and artful side of life.” – Sonia Choquette

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about being afraid to make art. Lots of you wrote back or commented and said that you knew exactly what I meant. It seems a lot of us are afraid to say that we are artists.

Within a few days I knew that I had to do more with this fear: I had to face it. I wrote myself a letter, which turned into a dare, which turned into a manifesto, which turned into a collaboration with a dear friend and this lovely piece of art.

I told you that I had a present for you, but even I never imagined how wonderfully it would turn out. Penny took the words I had written and made them look beautiful. Thank you Penny! Please accept this as our gift to you this festive season. May the new year bring you everything you wish for!

(Just click on the image to download it to your computer. )

with love,

I have come to the rather uncomfortable realization that for me there is no such thing as lazy.

When I sat down to create my feather for lazy, I knew that it could not be just an ordinary feather. Lazy can not be dark or sombre. Lazy needs jazz hands! So I stopped procrastinating and being afraid to make Art and got out the pink glitter. Everything is better when it includes glitter.

You can read about my travels with lazy here, but I just need to say this:

Dear Lazy,

Thank-you. You have taught me to listen, not only to you but to the other emotions and feelings that I have been taking for granted. You have taught me that when you appear, there is something that I am avoiding. You have taught me to look more closely at myself and to remember that part of me is still a very small child. You have also freed me, because now I know that I am not lazy, and that is a very very good thing to discover.

I promise to keep paying attention.

love, megg.

xo