For the past decade or so, I’ve ended and begun the year in the same way. Writing a reflective piece on the year coming to an end, and a corresponding intentional piece on the year to come. It used to be December 31st and January 1st, but for the past few years, I’ve shifted my relationship with the new year, and view the Winter Solstice as my personal new year nowadays.

A year ago, I did the reflective piece on my Year of Bubbles and set the intention for the year, elaborately expanding upon it in my kernel journal (term courtesy of my fellow Creative Community-friend Jennifer) without ever getting around to typing it up for the blog. After a few months I deleted it from my to-do-list, as an act of C.A.R.E., which, it just so happens, was the intention for the year coming to an end on December 22nd, 2023.

C.A.R.E. as in care, but also as an acronym for:
Compassion – listening deep within, granting me what I need, wish, desire
Activity – following the bubbles
Rest – when rest is called for, heed the call
Exploration – play and have fun exploring!

Looking at the doodle summarizing last year, I look forward to sitting down with my iPad, pen and Paper, seeing what shows up… because oh, what a year it’s been… Without a doubt the toughest year of my life and looking back I can only sigh in gratitude for intuition, for listening to the wisdom coming through, for granting me care.

[Artistic break:
Flicking through my calendar, jotting down snippets from the year.
Overwhelmed by it all. Having a mini-breakdown, I put it aside… until, finally, six days later, I sit down to doodle.]