Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year...now what?

Kathy Mattea - Give Yourself to Love

Video from Sunsong 23.

At the end of 2009 I experienced a strong urging to be more intentional about, more committed to having a blog. In 2009 I posted 33 times. With this addition, I will have 135 posts for 2010, for which my goal was 10 postings a month. Consistency sometimes challenges me. To know this and to turn it into an asset is like teaching two squirming life-forms with nothing in common to waltz.

Half-way into 2010, an urging from the same source suggested seeking a wider list of blogging writers to read. Chance or fortune led me to a group from which I am learning about poetry. With their help, and the relentless encouragement of my brother, I find occasional poetic phrases to elevate my prose. To do more of that is my wish for 2011.

Writing is a river flowing alongside the town that is me. It is a constant, now more independent, maturing almost on its own, while I show up at my day job of trying to find peace and cajoling it into reliable attendance.

Some - perhaps all - of us are speckled with drawbacks, obvious as the age spots on some of our hands. What an assignment, befriending the shortcomings, spending enough time with them to identify their strengths. I am running a drop-in center for those labeled under-achievers. They are surly and reluctant, while wanting so much to find a place where someone can see past their thorns.

To know and embrace the true self, to do the dance of joy every day without that fatal whiff of disappointment turning the air toxic, I believe in this. It is love.

29 comments:

Artist and Geek said...

Marylinn-I think you meant over-achievers.
Now what? EVERYTHING.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and wishing you great health, accomplishments, art, the universe, poetry, posts...

I'll see/read you in 2011.

Donna B. said...

Onward and upward my friend! Happy New Year!

Marylinn Kelly said...

Artist and Geek - Yes, everything with joy on top. Peace, gentleness, patience.

I wish you all the same for the new year and thank you for your thoughts.

Didn't this decade fly? See you next year.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Donna - We shall prevail. Yes, onward and upward. A very happy New Year to you and your family. My thanks.

Kass said...

Your prose is already so poetic. You have such a way with words and it seems to flow so effortlessly. I struggle to find the right way to express myself. I enjoy what you have to say and how you say it.

Wishing you all the fulfillment you seek in 2011!

Sultan said...

Good wishes and dreams for the new year.

Elisabeth said...

Post as you can is my suggestion, Marylinn.

Quality has to be better than quantity. And your quality is the best. Don't sacrifice it for more, to satisfy the accountants. Who's counting anyway.

Claire Beynon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Claire Beynon said...

The pace at which your blog unfolds seems to me to be just right, dear Marylinn. You offer yourself and us the time and space to engage and reflect, to leave and return, and to do so again. . . I agree with Kass - your writing is wonderfully clear and poetic, from the tips of its toes to the top of its head. Happy New Year to you and to your creative river. xo

RachelVB said...

I feel fortunate to have found you. Thank you for all the beautiful engagements these past couple of months.
Happy 2011! May there be many more!
xo
Rachel

Radish King said...

Onward and upward, my friend.
xor

Kass said...

I just watched the Kathy Mattea video. What a wonderful gift you gave us that I didn't take time to watch at first scrolling.

So glad I came back to enjoy and be uplifted.

Marta said...

Your words touch the humanity in me..I am grateful for your gifts..
Marta

susan t. landry said...

all good wishes to you Marylinn. i love your voice, at turns sardonic, playful, whimsical, and yet always grounded, always true. it's the trueness, especially, that i so appreciate. i am so happy to have met you in 2010!
xo
susan

Artist and Geek said...

Yes it did and good riddance. Global warming and recession, not a decade humanity can be proud of. So hear is to the end of zeroes and the beginning of number ones.

One of my self-absorbed :) goals, find the time to start a blog so I can recommend this for example:

YouTube: "Polar bears playing with Spy cameras" and "Maru the cat".

Artist and Geek said...

Oops. Phonetically challenged. I meant here is to...
Methinks it's time to stop anything even remotely resembling cognitive thinking today. Right hemisphere here I come.

P.S. Word verification just validated my ambitions with "patine". Trying out some new art supplies then. :)

Marylinn, can't wait to see/read your 2011 creativity.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Kass - Thank you so much, and I offer in return the appreciation of your words, your poetry extending more deeply into the world. What gifts I find in all of you who comment here. May it be a year of our voices growing stronger.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Laoch - As I've been typing, my son was reporting weather around the country and I thought of you, with your Chicago January just begun. Wishing you whatever you seek and enduring humor, which nourishes us all. Thank you for your good wishes.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Elisabeth - A belated Happy New Year to you and your family. Thank you...I promise that quantity will not be a goal, I will simply keep doing what I can, but try to maintain a minimum requirement, which seems to have worked for 2010. Always so pleased to see you here.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Claire - Thank you...my creative river gives me a visual, a help, I hope, in keeping my bearings. I know there are blogs to which I return, not able to take it all in during one reading. If this is such a place, I am content. A very Happy New Year, with waters to hold us together.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Rachel - Yes, may there be many more. What riches arrived so unexpectedly, bonds forged, forums for honesty and looking more deeply at our own truths. Wishing you a magnificent year.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Rebecca - It was a shining day, called by Radish King, for who could resist such a name, a title. I could never have guessed what awaited me on your innertubes and the way in which I continue to be led onward and upward.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Kass - It has been a favorite song for many years, by Kate Wolf, and Kathy Mattea holds the same sensibility. I'm glad you came back and found it. I am always lifted.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Marta - Thank you. Our shared humanity connects us in so many ways, sisters and brothers along the same path.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Susan - As I am happy to have met you. Thank you so much. To have these writing referred to as trueness is high praise, it says I have not wandered too far from where I most want to be.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Artist and Geek - If the ones on our calendars encourage you to begin your blog, then we have already evolved beyond that zero, though I can't say the year was as difficult for me as it was for many I know. I will look into the videos you mentioned and yes, a blog will let you share them more widely. No left brain activity on Jan. 1. It's a holiday and a Saturday. Here's to new art supplies. We will both be surprised with what creativity emerges in the new year.

Marylinn Kelly said...

TO ALL - I cannot find fault with a year that enriched and widened my life through meeting you. To spend the first day of 2011 reading, taking in, your comments is more than I would have hoped for. It is already a happy new year. Much love to you, Marylinn

37paddington said...

that last paragraph is the thing. if we can hold fast to that, we'll be more than fine. i am glad i found you in 2010, and I will be here, following your poetry in 2011.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Angella - Thank you. I am so glad to have met you here. We may have to form a cult of mutterers, or noisy proclaimers, as we remind ourselves (aloud works best for me) of the last paragraph, keeping our truth always in mind.