Moving without leaving...

Over the weekend, I got a new floor installed in the studio. 

In order to do that, I (and my conscripted minions, who had to help me because they are my family and I hold dinner hostage) had to take everything out and then put it all back in.  Functional fitness, indeed.

The process functioned like moving, but I didn’t actually have to leave town.  It gave me a chance to evaluate what was working in the studio and what wasn’t.  I got to ask what I wanted to carry (literally and figuratively) forward and what I didn’t.  The new and improved space has a bit less clutter and a bit more focus on the essentials.

This is not bad advice for all of us as we move into the new year.  And y’all are welcome to come try out some new stuff in my improved space!

Boxing Day...

Presumably, by now the presents are all opened, the feast has been devoured, and the recycling has gone out.  That leaves two tasks:  thank you notes and returns.

As we sit down and tell our loved ones thank you for their gifts, we might want to take a moment to thank our bodies.  After all, they brought us here and let us experience the joys and wonders and more challenging things of the season.  They take care of business items like breathing and circulating and processing so we can focus on the good stuff.  We are very quick to notice when our bodies don’t get it all done and we are pretty harsh in our criticism of how our bodies look.  Take a moment to chill out and appreciate how amazing our bodies are.  Our backs deserve a pat, at least.

As to the returns, I have nothing to offer on the subject of ugly sweaters, incomprehensible kitchen items, and oddly inappropriate musical toys.  However, we can take the opportunity to transform what doesn’t work into what does.  Yes, that applies to taking back the sweater and getting cute shoes instead, but it also means that we transform that nasty comment from Aunt Mabel into either fuel for our journey or background noise we pay no attention to.  We can choose what gifts we give ourselves.

Or, since it’s Boxing Day, we can go hit some inanimate objects really hard.  We can choose.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Go play!