glowing doors
it’s funny, when this coming year whispered its name to me
— the Year of Doors —
back in September,
I did not register at the time just how much thresholding
is in this threshold
on New Year’s Eve, I officially exit the
metaphorical chocolate shop,
which is actually the Red Rose Ballroom,
the venue I am somewhat accidentally in charge of (long story),
aka the other half of my business
sweet bitter-sweet
it is a sweet-bittersweet ending,
as befits a chocolate shop named for a rose
my freedom-heart rejoices in being done
with something that consumes my time/energy/resources and is not my joy,
while my dancer-heart aches knowing that this stunning and
historic space will not be danced in again,
it’s being turned into some sort of fancy showroom
this makes no sense to me but while I wasn’t looking
my city filled up, seemingly overnight, with grownups who do grownup things
what doors are for
but everything changes and everything ends, and that’s what doors are for,
marking the moment of moving through
and in one month’s time, I exit my
sweet home where I’ve lived for the past seven years
and then exiting the city I no longer want to be in
where am I going?
what a beautiful question — I can’t wait to find out
it’s a huge dark mahogany door marked with an X
I thought the X was for mystery,
but of course it is for treasure
X marks the spot
and the mystery is the treasure
so my job is to treasure the mysteries
many doors await me this year, right from the beginning
exiting (and entering) with intention.
the entry into my magical ballroom
has a message that arches above the double doors:
enter as you wish to be in it
and on the other side:
exit as you wish to continue
ritual
my hsp introvert new year’s eve ritual
is to hang out with my favorite person
(incoming me, who is wise, funny, fearless, wild)
and together we name wishes
then early to bed
52 wishes: here they are
- I treasure myself at all times and in all ways
- joyfully releasing what is not wild intense passionate yes
- it is fun for me to let my most glamorous playful independent self take the reins
- new clarity lets me see how Operation Resilience (a long-time-ago experience of not having a home, long months of uncertainty, hard memories of some terrifying cold sleepless nights) was more than just useful, it was proof of Endless Miracles and There Is No Edge
- I say yes to now and to what is now (“oh we’re over here now, let me turn the page!”) with the superpowers of Adaptability and Humor)
- I am plenty, I have plenty, I see plenty, and remembering this becomes automatic, my thank-you heart fills with appreciation
- no big deal, just undoing rigging like it’s my job (it is!)
- panther training — proxy mission — fills me with delight, and it’s a double meaning, training to be a panther (fierce, powerful, embodied fluid grace), and training the twenty four panthers in my invisible entourage
- I find joy in practice — superpower of “in it for the long haul”
- grand adventures that are pleasurable, healing, sweet and fun
- I feel and perceive that I am strikingly beautiful, regardless of what mirrors and monsters show me — and yes, this is another superpower of aliveness and delight in life, seeing my own glow and allowing myself to be impressed by it
- easy relaxed positive confident striding through space, and all the superpowers of Unapologetically Taking Up Space
- timely Congruencing, following the next indicated step in life/business based on my instinct and my yes, and making changes accordingly
- all the right exit strategies reveal themselves, especially the one about forty
- the most wonderful clues are everywhere, and I see them and smile (literally as I wrote this, the person next to me at the cafe asked what I was writing, and I wrote “plans” on a napkin, and he said, “oh, I’m a professional planner with a degree in planning, I love it when people make plans!”, then I looked up and noticed there’s a horseshoe on the wall of this place where I sit all the time, and this is what I mean by clues everywhere)
- so very present, I am here, I want to be here now
- I give myself rest, generously, without skimping or making faces or saying things like “oh I have no idea why I’m so tired”, because I know that rest is mine and it’s how I take care of myself, and it doesn’t need a reason
- I choose LIFE and delight in aliveness, even the hard parts, I welcome life, I remember that my name (in hebrew) means life and (Eve) was called life because she was the mother of all aliveness, I am positively vibrant with this living, this is not easy and that’s probably why it is my name
- I own very little, and love everything that I own
- sweet ease-filled harmonious adjustments
- I take pleasure…and pleasure takes me…mmmmmhmmmmm
- time with friends and people who are important to me
- I easily let go of what is done
- the calendar qualities of the Year of Doors — FREEDOM SANCTUARY LUSCIOUSNESS ROOTS WILD WONDER HARMONY MUSE INTENTION CENTER ECHOING LIGHT — whoosh their way into every crevice of my life, and I become friends with these qualities and am so glad I invited them in
- balance, grace, agility, adaptability: in my body and how I am in the world
- I remember that there is (and I have) plenty of time
- each day I challenge the rigged game, whether with laughter and a raised eyebrow, or with powerful purposeful graceful dismantling
- I pursue what appeals, panther-like
- food is delicious, and I savor it with full sensory delight
- luscious minimalism: I live by this
- I cherish my body, in sickness and in health, as they say in vows…
- wise funny creative me to the front of the V!
- maintaining steady contact with my Incomings and wise wild selves
- playing in pretty places
- I respect all current intel about myself (for example, that I need to be somewhere warmer and quieter right now, got it, am working on it!)
- related: I do not try to force myself to be “normal” (whatever that means), to adhere to or accommodate any external expectations, stated or perceived
- in all situations, I ask for more intel, and set clear loving expectations at all times
- saying hello to what I want by investigating sparks
- ha, it turns out that I love being [age], and the crisis everyone I know had at this age passes me by because I’ve had enough of those, and I have a wonderful birthday, I insist on it and make room for quiet reflection!
- I take mind-blowing dance lessons that give me exactly what I need to learn
- my imaginary reality show (Montage) is the most joyful, rewarding challenge I have ever taken on, and even on the hard days, I appreciate it so much, also proxies are awesome
- I am able to see/feel plentiful visible improvement in my dancing, internal and external, in confidence and in form, and this is beautifully reflected from me and back to me in marvelous unexpected ways
- this is the year of plentiful good surprises, and all the best seeds
- hello, fourpees: Passion, Pleasure, Precision, Presence! (Brandi Tobias, famous dance teacher, has her Four Ps of dance: Posture, Pitch, Poise and Position, while another dance teacher I study with talks about how the keys/Ps to dance are Persistence, Practice, Patience and Perseverance, and I will take all of that too, though my fourpees are more fun!)
- wildly hot sex, just ridiculously-off-the-charts levels of this, and plenty of it, amen
- I get quieter and quieter and quieter, and I love it
- I feel wonderfully at home wherever I go, cozy nests reveal themselves to me, and when the time is right, my new just-right-for-me home shows up for me
- following my yes in all things, 120%, wild and passionate sparks of yes
- brave and fearless in entering and exiting adventures, generous with smiles
- rejoicing in the beautiful things of life
- I am ready to retire, not just to quit fake grad school, I figure out how to go deeper into Shmita and the magic of Less
- I trust myself deeply, and this is peaceful and easy
bonus wish
this is the year of doors and seeds
and I am wonderfully aware of this at all times,
aware of passage and of potential
all doors open for me
these are the superpowers I ask for this year
safe passage
all the right doors open for me
glowing doors
so I can’t miss them
you might even say I glow them open
(the secret double meaning of glowing doors)
come enjoy wishes with me for this new year
here is how we meet each other’s wishes:
oh wow, what beautiful wishes!
you are welcome to leave wishes big and small,
naming qualities and invoking superpowers
or share a word or words for your year
and you are invited to share this post with anyone
who could use some wishing
and some glowing doors
I love having company
all the best doors and all the best surprises!
announcement!
I’m shipping the last of the gorgeous small-batch YEAR OF DOORS calendars, with those outrageously luscious and powerful doors, on Monday, Jan 4, so THIS WEEKEND is the last chance to order, unless we run out before then!
$30 plus shipping, calculated during checkout
update: SOLD OUT
I support you in these beautiful wishes. I resonate with so many of them — honestly, with all of them, all, all!
I am here, I am present, and I am deepening into this magic word:
***ARTIST***
<3
Artist!! Yes! <3
My dayplanner pic this week is sun shining thru a gap in solid stone, over a stormy ocean. Totally a door and treasure!
My word this year:
Temple.
<3
-o-
breath of gratitude for this space
I am so excited for the upcoming year!!!
I want to stand in this doorway for a bit, treasuring the view {forward} {inward} {pre-existant} and treasuring so many beautiful things that are {behind} {outward} {post-existant}
….
I LOVE the Year of Doors calendar already and can't wait to explore each month
and also yesterday, I picked out a big calendar for the kitchen, with beautiful flower paintings that just *sing*,
and I spent time [thinking/imagining] the upcoming year
and Me-upcoming, who was so JOYFUL, showed me fantastic landscapes that I will visit
i can tell already they are full of magic.
There is one for each month, she says.
I think I will visit each night as I am going to sleep, and see what I find.
these are clues I found in a brief glimpse:
January – STRENGTHENING – in every blade of grass
February – APPARITION – which veil/corner/shadow?
March – ENOUGH:PLENTY – what is abundance?
April – PEACEFUL – to lie down, rest; to be whole again —
May – BRAVERY – come, swift current, rush away!
June – DIRECTION – orient: then begin
July – INFINITY – name the stars to understand
August – PROTECTION – find shade, find water: there we rest
September – BUILDING,SETTLING – look for signposts
October – KINDNESS – seek the joy and warmth of people
November – BELIEF, PERSISTENCE – be mindful of illusion.
December – HONOR – realize how far you have come.
I've never approached a year this way before, laying seeds of qualities for future-me, and now I have SO much to ponder! I'm a bit apprehensive, but I trust me-who-brought-everything-to-the-table. I'm so curious to see how these qualities and the landscapes and the qualities of the Year of Doors all interact.
[Seasonal greetings]!
What beautiful wishes!
In less than five minutes I will have passed through the time-door into the new year. Realizing this is an artificial construct, the fact that it occurs in this hemisphere as we are turned away from the sun, soon after the Winter Solstice, feels entirely appropriate to me. Here, Winter is the season in which seeds hibernate in the soil, transforming themselves in anticipation of the first leaves and roots which will emerge in mere weeks. This moment in Winter is thus the door I can pass through into the deep heart of stillness. My wish for January is that freedom will be manifested by invoking stillness rather than busy-ness, that transformation will begin by passing into stillness, that activity will be enhanced by stillness, and that from this stillness will emerge creativity and joy.
<3 to all in 2016.
Stillness and emergence! <3 <3 <3
Such beautiful doors! I have hung them up this morning!
May 2016 be full of wonderful things.
Oh, what beautiful wishes!
May all your qualities come.
In September, (the other beginning of the year) I created a compass which started in the East and shows West as my cardinal direction. I just moved from the Hospitality of mid-November and December, wherein I found that I was to be receptive to the Hospitality of others into Wisdom, which will last through February.
Wishing the Big Wish for The Dude – a job. For me, hm. Playing in Pretty P(a)laces.
😎
Here’s to Wisdom and p(a)laces!
Someone I love involuntarily revealed my word for this year and it is Brave. !!!!
Which is just one letter away from Brava, which means “good”in my mothertongue.
So this year I’ll be good (as in: good force, good things, nourishing thoughts – NOT as in: good girl) and I will be brave.
May all your wishes find fertile ground!
May it be so!
Amen to all of this! I love it so much.
!!!!!!!!!
To my delight, the egg in today’s Google Doodle contained a stack of turtles. I would like to get back to seeing turtles regularly, which used to happen when my hiking partner and I got to Radnor Lake almost every week. A habit that went by the wayside last year because of work and illness; a clew to hold on to. I have put the word turtles on my calendar.
Something I ate yesterday resulted in major GI distress, so I have dialed back today’s plans to going back to bed. Yoga and/or dancing are still possibilities for tonight, but I am grateful for this life where I can change my plans so easily, where I am spending the first day of the year wrapped in a thick shawl made by my friend Rae and sipping a mug of mint tea.
My sweetie and I are and will be dealing with many literal doors soon, with construction both at home and his shop. Here at home, the changes to the doors will let in more light. Which in turn will create more room for more beautiful peppers and other fruit. More glowing!
Warm wishes to all y’all.
More light and more glowing! That is a good clue about doors. <3
Oh what beautiful wishes!
I’d like to seed qualities for future years, but now is not the time for that, so I’m trusting that when it is time I’ll know.
Some wishes to seed here:
– remember my panther self
– sleep, rest, trust in plenty (these are all connected)
– courage! heart! I ask for what I want with ease and without apology.
– my body moves in just the way it needs to
– sleek and satisfied
May these or something better reveal themselves for joy in the coming year.