"The Call" by Remedios Varo
To me the real question about whether or not to make New Year's Resolutions is simple: No. I don't do that.
What I do is review the prior year and project what I wish to accomplish in the coming year.
Many divergent areas of my life are considered. Have I been the Mother I need to be in 2008 and what can I do better in 2009? Not just say "I will be a better Mother" - but, specifically, what are the actions I can do to make that occur. I can turn off the music in the car and actually have a conversation with the children while we are enduring the endless pick-up/drop-off phase of our lives. I can instigate conversations and ask what their opinions are and why. I can NOT turn every conversation into a lecture. I can listen. I can color more with my 6 year old.
In my marriage I could make dinner a few more times a week and I can turn off my computer and sit and hold his hand while he watches TV. I can play some Wii golf WITH him instead of reading on the couch. I could go work in the yard with him instead of holing up in the studio on the weekend. We could start doing some of the things we both love to do: hiking, nature photography, playing cards, and Scrabble.
As a sister I could call my siblings more frequently. As a daughter I could take some time to mail my mom cards and hand-written notes as she does not do e-mail. I can collect things I know she will love and always have a gift bag ready for any time I see her.
If 2009 is this cabinet - I get to fill it with all the dreams I have and hope to accomplish:
1. Better actions as a mother and wife
2. More completed artworks/applying for grants/fellowships and to VISIT real art again - a major trip for art viewing
3. More shows to share my artwork
4. I could finish posting my Etsy shop so people don't have to beg me to sell things.
5. Start my series about my Italian experiences
6. Get more active on my own blog ;) - pursue my writing with a more defined goal, write some of those memoir stories for myself and then decide if I want to share with others
7. Nurture and maintain my new and old friendships
8. Take time to reflect on my own life and the balance of my selfs: physical, spiritual, creative, and dreaming
9. Become more fully who I am intended to be
10. Make sure I am following MY CALLING
Read MoreBook Thief - You Know Who You Are!
This story is real, it happened to me, or I happened to it, this is how important my 'books' are to me:
One time I was traveling 800 miles with 2 toddlers (mine) and I strategically stopped at a fast food restaurant (Burger King) where they had a playground for the monkeys (the toddlers) to wiggle on
. . . and brought in a book I was dying to keep reading (The Perfect Storm) . . . so first we take a potty break (diapers, pull-ups . . . hands . . .) you know that routine and I accidentally, not-on-purpose left the book somewhere in there (the ladies' room). . .
____flash forward 5 minutes______
I am standing in line waiting to order when it hits me - my freaking book is missing!!! I holler, drag the babies back in the women’s room as two fat ladies exit . . . no book . . .I get behind them in line and I hear them whispering
. . . I am telling the kids, somebody stole my book! So I ask the fat ladies,
"Did you see anybody take a book in the ladies’ room"?
"Oh no, no" they say as they look nervously at each other.
I look over and fatty number two has a suspiciously rectangular solid form in the area where her belly should be!
#*%&&
So I look right at her, point at her tummy (my book) and say -
"IS THAT MY BOOK, IT IS CALLED 'THE PERFECT STORM'?”
She looks away, gets her food from the counter . . . and walks away.
I loudly discuss with my children that thieves will have judgment from God or Karma in their lives and that they will never be happy because they are carrying such black guilt for what they have done . . .
I see the fatty with the rectangular object (my book) hidden on her belly go into the ladies’ room . . . then they leave.
I run in there and
******what do you think was in the wastebasket?****
- my freaking book!!!!
I was so excited! I finished that book, which was great AND I made that fat idiot feel like crap enough that she gave something back (even if she couldn't face me to do it)!!!!
Note: I have been fat, some of my family is fat, so don’t make any “oh, you said FAT” comments. They were FAT/overweight/chunky/obese and that is a description.
They did not, however, have bunheads (which is related to a future posting).