2006 resolutions

It's the 'twix and 'tween time as the end of the year draws to a close. I am one of the incredibly fortunate to have the day off from my regular duties of paid labour. I'm home with CU3 this week. CU1 and 2 will be joining us next week for another week of R&R.

The house is currently quiet. CU3 struggling to stay awake in case I do something more exciting then vacuum up the Cherrio/dog/cat food breakfast concoction she created for this morning's snack.

We have a smattering of presents still under the tree as they wait for our New Years Eve party when we're all back together. As DH's birthday has also been saved for the end of the year, we're going to make it an enormous birthday party where every one gets presents.

I took a walk this morning with CU3. It was pleasant, a bit nippy, but that is to be expected at this time of year, and for the next few months. I took my little digital camera with me as I used to kick myself about not capturing a feeling, a picture, a this or that when I was using only regular film stock. The digital medium allows me to take more chances and make more mistakes all for the cost of a couple of batteries. Not a bad deal I would say.

The walk allowed me time alone with my thoughts, as CU3 is not a talkative child. I've been walking backwards through 2005. It's been like walking through an antique store of memories, picking up this curio and that memory. Nothing I'd want to buy or take home with me, but nice to know that they're there.

One sub-theme that's present is my unmistakable approach to life. I've been told it's like no other and I'm just starting to believe that this may be the case. This December I've had close friends, acquaintances and family give me a two-minute roast, recounting something that I've done that has given them some laugh or relieved some level of grief. There's the story of me at 13 bullying the Mothership to our small town's best (read only) hotel in the middle of a nasty winter to sit in their hot tub for a couple of hours. Then there's a story from a relative who told his postmaster how I would mail packages in summer with Christmas packing tape, just to zing the postal system! I do these things without thinking. Maybe that's my problem. I don't take a conscious approach to my creativity. I know that I certainly have a problem with sustaining a long-term project, preferring to attempt something that has almost instantaneous results.

This brings me to one of the Christmas presents I received this year: Letters to a Young Artist: Building a Life in Art by Julia Cameron. Ms. Cameron is widely renown as a bestselling author of The Artist's Way a well-thumbed manual on doing art and making time for everything else. I must confess I haven't read her other work(s), though I know of them and often direct my disillusioned, creatively stuck friends. I'm wondering if 2006 is a year that I am to heed the call for closer examination??