2012 in Review

This year....I was full. That's the best way I can describe everything that I felt. I felt things deeper then usual this year, but was able to still think, and focus, and maintain my sanity(for the most part). Which honestly is something that I've struggled with. Feeling things deeply has always left me feeling unhinged.

 

As this year comes to an end I feel quite nervous. There are so many things that I HAVE to accomplish this year. I'm going to do what I always do when trying to keep myself on task and make daily list. But to keep track of the little things I'm going to do a little "jar project" that I found online.

 

Instead of waiting until the end of the year, I plan on reading through the little notes 3 times. At the end of April, August, and December(nye). I'm really excited about this new project because I overlook all of the great things that happen to me all the time. I hope to use this project to continuously remind myself that:

 

"A Single Sunbeam Is Enough To Drive Away Many Shadows "- St. Francis of Assisi

Today's Lesson

"The artist's job is not to succumb to despair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.."

From Midnight in Paris

"Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow..."

"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the same well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can this be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"....."When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy"..."Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed."

From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

When I first read this it didn't ring true to me. How can joy and sorrow be "inseparable"?  A couple of days ago I was intensely happy, but before the day had ended I was intensely sad. When I sat and thought about it I realized that even when I was happy that sadness was still there, and vise versa. What this quote means to me is something I've always known. When you are sad happiness isn't far away(and vise versa).

A la prochaine!

"and your very flesh shall be a great poem..."

"This is what you shall do:

Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches,

give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy,

devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,

 have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, 

re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,

dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem

and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

 — Walt Whitman from Leaves of Grass

A la Prochaine!