Hello Again

So, a little behind with the whole new years resolution thing, but not because I'm to cool for school to make them. On the contrary, I bloody love imagining I'm capable of inhuman shifts in habit and I don't much care that the actual change is usually minuscule. I think of setting new years intentions like knowing in your skin what you can’t yet think in your brain and, since I am all for trusting those kind of feelings, I make many.

If you are also a sucker for resolutions, and you don't mind suggestions, then I have a movement focused one for you. It's something I spent last year trying, sometimes succeeding in, sometimes not doing at all (in no particular order) and to my delight some of these quirky little imaginings have become well rounded useful habits that help me day-to-day.

Each week (not accounting for lack of Internet connection, sickness and laziness) I will post a simple way to introduce a different movement nutrient into your daily life. I've gathered these from many places and will always credit my source where necessary, because it's the right thing to do, but also so that you can go and do your own research (if you so desire...and I wholeheartedly recommend that you do desire that kind of thing)

Week one to follow....

 

keep moving.

I'm choosing to believe this fabricated magic from Madame Clairevoyant this year.

EXIST

'There’s simply no greater feeling in the world, save perhaps for cold pillows and warm towels, than having nothing to do and nowhere to be — just a wonderfully itinerary-free day that starts without alarm clock and ends without threat of the next morning’s call time. That’s how I plan to start 2014: with no agenda...'

-- Amelia Diamond

I think this is true.

I have hard-work on the brain for this year, but mostly I'm just going to resolve to continue to EXIST. An awful lot of brilliant things fall under that category.

This Year.

Libra: This year’s going to be bright and fast and really great for you, full of friendship and good news and hard work. Feel this as the gift that it is and still, don’t forget to let yourself be dreamy. Make time to laze around alone, and to go on long rambling walks, and to sit under trees or swim in the ocean or let strange spinning thoughts grow inside you. Make time for beautiful things, make time for the weirdest parts of yourself. This year, spend time with babies or spend time with animals. This year, practice being very tender.

-- Madame Clairevoyant

I'm going to work hard to make this one come true.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

From me and Clyde the Dog. Looking forward to the year ahead!

Resolutions

Sod this, let's go for a wine

Author Emma Forrest calls for a 2013 free of pressure

The quest for perfect is over. Author Emma Forrest calls for a 2013 free of pressure, where real women reign…

One of my true heroes here in LA is Richard Simmons, who came to fame as an Eighties aerobics instructor but still teaches three times a week at his Beverly Hills gym. There is no other class in this city where people who are very elderly or overweight can exercise as part of a community, one where we have all signed up to have a 65-year-old Jewish man dressed in a kilt (or as Black Swan or Rainbow Brite) bark, as he blasts Gloria Gaynor: “You will NOT survive, I will follow you home!” I remember the first time I stirred his ire, with a half-hearted jumping jack: “Hell no!” he snapped, “I did not waste $40 of make-up for this shit!”

I mention Simmons to illustrate this point: at some pivotal moment in his life, Richard must have realised he was not like other people, that he was an eccentric and an outsider and that there are even doctors who might cast him on the spectrum of mental illness. Instead of trying to fix himself, he parlayed that madness into his fame and fortune and a life where he feels good and makes others feel good. New Year’s resolutions should always be avoided if you want to be your best self. They are like methadone – as damaging to the body and soul as the very thing you’re trying to quit.

click here to read on... 

Year's End

Neither the symbolic detail
of a three instead of a two,
nor that rough metaphor
that hails one term dying and another emerging
nor the fulfillment of an astronomical process
muddle and undermine
the high plateau of this night
making us wait
for the twelve irreparable strokes of the bell.
The real cause
is our murky pervasive suspicion
of the enigma of Time,
it is our awe at the miracle
that, though the chances are infinite
and though we are
drops in Heraclitus' river,
allows something in us to endure,
never moving.

Jorge Luis Borges, translated by W.S. Merwin.

thought for the day...

Happy New Year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!