Word

Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.

Mary Sarton

(1912-1995)

Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.

Greg Anderson

(1970)

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.

Og Mandino

(1923-1996)

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.

Abraham Lincoln

(1809-1865)

I want my love, my joy, my laugh, my smile, my needs

Not in the star signs

Or the palm that she reads

I want my sun-drenched, wind-swept Ingrid Bergman kiss

Not in the next life

I'll have it in this

I'll have it in this

Good as Gold - The Beautiful South

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

Mary Lou Cook

(1918)

Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

Helen Keller

(1880-1968)

Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.

Horace

(65 BC-8 BC)

Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled-to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world.

Mary Oliver

(1935)

Living creatively is really important to maintain throughout your life. And living creatively doesn't mean only artistic creativity, although that's part of it. It means being yourself, not just complying with the wishes of other people.

Matt Groening

(1954)

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake...

Francis Bacon, Sr.

(1561-1626)

One of the single most useful practices I've adopted over the past few years is the selection of the annual word. If you've been coming round here for a while, you'll know that I find it almost impossible to narrow anything down to just one... I cannot bear the limitation because, for me, almost everything depends on context. I have strong preferences, yes, but my favourite today, in this setting, won't necessarily be my favourite tomorrow if presented with a new situation and array of choices. I do my best. I have only three favourite colours and could probably narrow it down to a 'top ten' in most categories of stuff if I had to... but just one? Can't do it. And my lists change.

Some may see this as indecisive, flighty, or fickle even - I have battled with this myself. I admire the focus of those who can hone in on something singularly and direct all their attention at it. It's wonderful to see what can be achieved in those circumstances. But it's just not me. I reserve the right to be and do many things, often simultaneously, to change, and to change my mind*. I will never be a specialist and for that reason, probably never 'the best' at any thing. This used to worry me enormously. Now I prefer to see it as an expression of a Renaissance soul, the Renaissance being a time when being multi-faceted was actively encouraged and enthusiastically pursued. I find there are a lot of Renaissance souls who inhabit the blogosphere and that's one of the things I love most about it. Anyway, I digress... see, so easily distracted.

The annual word has been something that I've found does allow me to focus on one idea or concept to the extent that I am able. I know a lot of people experience the value of the practice and I encourage anyone who has never done so to give it a go. It's a powerfully simple thing. One of the things I love about it is that within a single carefully selected word there can still be variety and nuance. It reminds and holds me steady but allows me freedom at the same time to explore and grow over the course of a year. The annual word has worked magic for me.

So, last year my word chased me down at strange times and in strange places, and chose me. I resisted a bit (it's not an obvious 'me' word) but it felt right. In every way. Sparkle. A word to conjure with... 

Yeah. No. 2010 was probably my least sparkly year ever. There were very, very brief flashes but overall it was more of a fizzle than a sparkle. I did not feel in way light, effervescent or fiery. Sometimes the universe has its own ideas.

When I started to think about my word for this year, I wondered if I needed a word that gave me room to grow and heal quietly, to take it slowly. Unfold made it onto the list. Also, enfold. Glow was another option. Or renew. All more gentle words. But none felt exactly right. Knocking around in the back of my mind, the word sparkle kept showing up and waving at me, with both hands... perhaps it felt I hadn't given it enough of a chance, or that both of us were thwarted by events beyond our control. I don't know. But it wouldn't go away. And I decided not to ignore it.

So, in an unprecedented move, I'm choosing to go with it for a second year. Sparkle is my word for 2011. Again.

I do wonder if I might regret this decision: Perhaps I just don't have the sparkle in me anymore and no amount of looking or trying will make it happen? Perhaps I'm expecting too much? I know I yearn for it though and in good moments I can still work up a reasonable twinkle. But then, perhaps the darkness of last year will allow it to be found more readily and enjoyed more keenly this year? Perhaps I'll be more inclined to seek it out, truly invite it in and take a chance on it this time? Perhaps all I learnt from it last year is to keep striking the tinder, and this is part of that; sticking with it for a second round in hopes of an actual flame? Maybe it's just sheer bloody-mindedness and a refusal to settle for less? I don't know. But it feels like sparkle and I have a journey yet to travel together. All those reasons it felt true and right to me last year, still apply. If anything, I feel I need it more than ever now.

I take it as auspicious that when I was searching through my collection for quotations to encapsulate my wishes for the year ahead, I pulled out eleven. Eleven! All of them speak to me deeply in some way though and I've decided to go with that too. Sparkle allows for a bit of overthetopness, don't you think? In fact, that's kinda the point in some situations, isn't it? So instead of narrowing them down as I usually do, I'm kicking off two thousand and eleven with all eleven. I'm starting as I mean to go on...

I'm also planning to post, once a month, a list of the ways that sparkle has manifested in my life over the month - to help me with the process of spotting those more fleeting moments even in the dark times, and to maintain focus. I have a dinner party planned for February (surely the darkest time of year in the Northern hemisphere after months and months and months of winter?) the theme of which is going to be sParKLe. And I have a list of several mini projects up my sleeve to encourage creative sparkly expression throughout the year, a couple of which I might enlist some help with, from those who live in the world of sparkle much more easily than I. This morning I cut up an incredibly beautiful glittery calendar of 2010 sent to me by Linda Sue, framed some of my favourite images, and have hung them up in my art space... I have little bits of glitter all over me as I write this. And I love that.

As on the outside, so on the inside.

Sparkle on 2011... I insist.

*♥*


*The only exception to this rule seems to be the way I feel about people. Once I open my heart to someone, it's a forever thing. That doesn't always serve me well.