Getting the mind and spirit ready for a new year

CHERRIL DOTY

Christmas carols play in the background as I write. It is always odd

to be writing this column one week before you are reading it and

especially now during the holidays.

As I write this, the bustle that is holiday preparation is all

around me. There are long lines, impatient drivers, rolls of

bright-colored wrapping paper and ribbon at the ready to wrap the

last-minute gifts, smells of cookies baking and cheery greetings

everywhere. Eager children and hopeful adults await the coming

together of family for the sumptuous meals and opening of gifts.

There will be fulfillment of dreams and there will be

disappointments. There will be bright moments of happiness mixed with

sorrow for those no longer with us. Whatever does show up, it will be

full and rich -- it will be life. And much of it will be determined

by what we choose to do today.

As you read this, the wrapping paper has been torn from gifts,

some toys have already broken, that last piece of pie left you

feeling bloated, and you are moving on to thinking that next year ...

well, it will be different. Perhaps. It depends on what we each

choose.

What will the year 2004 bring for us all? What highs and lows?

What hopes and expectations will be fulfilled? Which not? To look

forward, I find myself first looking back.

An e-mail this morning from my friend, Lynn Brown, suggested I

read my own column from last January extolling the virtues of our

time in Animas. We had spent the 10 days after Christmas camped on

the beach there in Baja. It had been a glorious, joy-filled time

spent with friends -- a wonderful coda to a bustling holiday season

and prelude to another long full year. Reading this column offered me

the opportunity to think back to what went into many of the goals I

set and the choices I made for the year 2003.

“A great deal depends upon the thought patterns we choose and on

the persistence with which we affirm them.” (Piero Ferrucci) The year

2003 brought me the opportunity to fully embrace joy and prosperity

in all their possible manifestations. The year also saw goals met and

some altered and new ones set into play. It was often necessary --

and still is -- to reaffirm choices. I learned and continue to do so.

Lynn’s e-mail added the past to the mixture of now and next week.

Somehow this opened up the breach just a bit more and possibilities

for 2004 and beyond pranced before me like horses ready for a brisk

ride. Overwhelmed by prospects, not knowing which to choose, I took

myself to Crystal Cove for a brisk walk alongside the surf. In stark

contrast to my sunny memories of a year ago in Baja, the slight rain

blew in my face and curled my hair as I strode along in silent

commune with the shorebirds and my own inner self. Words, ideas and

places flitted through my brain until at last I settled into my own

stride, into my own self. Choices would come when they would.

Passion. Enthusiasm. Snow-covered pines on the rim of a canyon.

Deep chasms and high peaks. Purpose. Utah’s Canyonlands. San Antonio.

Mount Whitney redux. A Colorado River trip. Another Sawdust Festival.

New clients. New directions. New art forms with which to experiment.

Marriages and anniversaries. Loving and living. All of this and more

beckons. What will the goals be? Which choices will be made? As I

write this, I don’t know yet for sure. As you read this, I might. I

know I will be closer.

In the meantime, there is much to do so that I can savor family

time for myself when we are all finally and briefly back together

again -- in joy and prosperity. And, once that is accomplished,

another “camping coda” awaits that leads right into what’s next.

Past, present and future -- it all seems to meet in this space around

holiday time.

* CHERRIL DOTY is a creative living coach, writer and artist who

lives and works in Laguna Beach. She can be reached at

emmagine8@aol.com or by phone at (949) 251-3883