HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

January 1st just doesn't do it for me as a "new" year.  I approach it with a kind of regret orientation or obligation.  "OK, I'm soaked in sugar and glutted with too much stuff and now I'm supposed to get on a major self-improvement program!"  I don't think so. I'm usually ready for hibernation which is a great form of denial.

Now September 1st is a different story.  From years of back to school ritual, I am ready for a true new year.  Ready for:

--Going into something new, never done before.

--Being with new people (like them or not)

--To learn, to be in an environment that makes me learn and stretch

--To face a few fears (nothing more courageous than a first day Kindergartner)

--To take action and work after a Summer slump--the good kind

--For the support of new books and maybe shoes to highlight the challenge

That's how a New Year should look and for me it's September.
Let's hear it for the life long learners who start a new year whenever they want!!

HOW AM I? EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's my deal:
  
—I know so many people going through tough times and I'm empathic so I absorb feelings.  I don't want  people I care about to hurt.

—ISIS makes me nuts with pure fury and then defeat.  The destruction of antiquities combined with the beheading of an 82 year old scholar got on my last nerve.

—Forest fires once wiped out my husband's home. The wildness and size of the flames and the thought of courageous young people working so hard and earnestly to fight the giant blaze makes me get weepy. Goodness and generosity in the face of huge danger and possible death.

—The lack of gravitas and dignity in our presidential candidates seems so juvenile.  I want an adult to run our country--a healthy, balanced, open to difference, and sane adult.  

—Race??? I sigh. The issue can become so vague when we talk solutions and so ugly and raw and violent when it becomes person to person.  

This is just some of the things on my 'easy to get hopeless' list.

BUT BUT BUT. I am thinking of a person in my workplace quite a few years ago who was unfailingly, buoyantly energetically positive. We teased him. We made a little fun of his stance. He never varied. He carried his optimism with him regardless of his personal day.

Brian St Pierre, where are you?  Today I remembered you and your energy during my optimism dip. So people, how about this week carrying a little optimism, leading the way, regardless of your day. As an experiment.
I'm starting now.

How am I???  EXCELLENT!!!

I HAVE A NEW TITLE

Please refer to me as Matriarch Joyce. "Thank you dahlings. So kind. So kind"

I have turned a corner into a new stage of life and it deserves a title.
And Matriarch is it. It applies to both home and work.

At my recent family reunion I began to practice it. And at a leadership workshop last week, I did the same.

--I focused on the newest generation, grand kids at home and hi-potential talent at work.  Both needed lessons from experience and a soothing voice that understood (and a break from the demanding of day to day parents and managers.

--I didn't cook one meal at the family gathering.  At the workshop, I did no preparation but spoke only from my experience.

--I imposed moments of wisdom or learning when I wanted to, stopping proceedings to do so. AND was thanked for it--a clear indicator of Matriarch status.

--I gave perspective to the new generation by sharing history and stories

--I felt a little lazy BUT deserving of it

Maggie Smith, move over.  Or better yet, "Maggie, would you like to pour the tea and laugh at the foibles of the younger generation and gossip behind our fans? We are so much more able to see clearly than those who are living so close-up to the action. One cube or two?"  

KNOWING WHAT MATTERS MOST AND DOING IT = DEEP SATISFACTION

You can stop reading if you are a person that is never pulled in two or four or twenty kind-of, sort-of equally important directions. It means a constant choosing. Today I'll focus on this. Tomorrow I'll take care of that. This matters more------ or does it?

I'm not talking about tasks so much as I am about different activities or goals.
Garden versus reading. Family versus reading. Exercise versus reading.
I'm kidding!! Mostly.  You know what I mean.

I just had a week and a half of family reunioning. And here's what I'll miss most. I knew that grand kids mattered most. My focus was clear. Everything else was secondary. My kids--secondary.  Food--secondary.  My reading and writing time--secondary.  Relaxing in beauty--secondary.  What a relief when there is no juggling of goals or large activities.  So I played in the basement when the day was Summer perfect. I gave up playing fairy houses for dress-up with scarves.. I watched a goofy pre-teen TV show rather than paint and color.  It was not relaxing. It was mostly fun. It was tiring. BUT IT WAS SO SATISFYING.  It re-connected me with far away grand kids. 

I knew what mattered most and did it. 
May I carry that clarity into this week that has quite a bit of juggling in it because I haven't decided what matters MOST.
Lesson for me? Don't waste life energy through not knowing where you want to most use it.