2014!

Happy new year, all! 

Many of you will associate the new year with Midwinter, or the beginning of winter in the form of Samhain or a similar holiday. For me, the secular new year begins in the middle of summer, and the spiritual one in the middle of winter. But there's a spiritual sense of newness to this time of year, so I often begin new projects at this time whether I think about it that way or not. Maybe it's just the familiarity of secular new year and how it's a part of my subconscious, or the way everyone's on holiday and so relaxed, or the way everything is growing and joyful. 

Personally I'm not a summer person, as long-time readers will know. I don't like the heat or the brightness, and I get very anxious about sunburn and skin cancer. I find the height of summer very oppressive and spend a lot of time indoors, only venturing outside late in the evening. However, I do very much like the general feeling of the new year: the, well, newness of it. I like the re-orienting of everything to a new number on the calendar, the general feeling from everyone of "what will this year bring?", especially now when everything in technology and science is moving so fast and discovering and creating so much. Culture casts off the dusty old year and there's such anticipation and positivity and wonder. Love love LOVE that. And I love to incorporate that into my life on a personal level as well. I make resolutions and start new projects, create blogs, and get inspired to try new things.

I'm starting a new planner this year, one that helps you focus on your goals. It's called Passion Planner and you can download the weekly layout to give it a try yourself. It's already been really useful for me, especially as an anxious person. In a way I feel I'm putting pressure on myself short-term which freaks me out, but long-term it lays out - or rather, you lay out - your goals and steps to get there, so in that sense, the ability to plan ahead but still leave things flexible reduces anxiety as well. It's kind of exciting to me. The goal for this month is to look for a literary agent. I'm terrified! haha.

I haven't made any new year's resolutions, as such. Last year was a bit of a "down-time" year for me, where I didn't do much except work towards wellness and discover some of the things I wanted out of life. Throughout the year I sort of laid out things I wanted to get done on a weekly or daily basis: write every day, journal every day, exercise every day, meditate every day; read eddas every week, study Heathenry and witchcraft every week, blog at least once a week. I started doing those things when I decided I wanted to do them, with degrees of success. Now I have a really good planner, I can record when I do them, remind myself to do them, and plan my time better than I have done before. It's good. I feel productive - or at least, in a better position to be productive! ;)

One thing I may do at some point is migrate all my feminism-focused posts onto a more appropriate blog. I love Hagstone heaps but I hardly ever talk feminism here any more unless it's spiritually focused. But we'll see how lazy I'm feeling! ;)

Another thing about the new year is going through and marking all the dates for Sabbats and full moons. And I haven't even held my Midsummer blót yet!