Happy New Year

Hoping that 2012 brings each of you good health, happiness, peace and love.

We just enjoyed our traditional Greek New Year’s cake, Vasilopita. I added a little flair this time with the 2012 “stencil” before dusting the yellow cake with confectioner’s sugar. This year, I wasn’t worried about receiving the piece of cake with the hidden, lucky coin baked inside. This year, I am making my own luck. My new year’s resolution is to change my wavelength. Let me explain…

For a number of reasons, 2011 was a noteworthy year for us. On Valentine’s Day, Baby Whipped was born. I was not able to take much of a maternity leave and as I adjusted to the new balancing act of two children, I also had the busiest year on record at my consulting business. Similarly, my husband had a busy year at work, which included more travel than in the past three years. Throw in a number of broken appliances, Mini Whipped starting preschool and a sprinkling of family problems and you have all the ingredients that cooked up our memorable year.

Though there were many good times in 2011, we have not had time to reflect on them or enjoy them for long. Our lives have been reduced to minutes. At times, a few red lights brought anxiety as the lost moments felt as if they brought noticeable consequences to necessary productivity.  Every inch of the day has been accounted for in order to try to keep our ship afloat. The less urgent needs have been continually pushed to the back burner causing an attic overflowing with “stuff,” phone calls unreturned, and a long list of chores that were put off for a “later” that never came.

My husband recently made a good analogy. Financially, we are fortunate that we do not live paycheck to paycheck. But, we spend every ounce of our energy in a similar fashion leaving no reserves. Our normal schedule has been so exhausting that we end each day too tired to even think. When unexpected challenges arose (like repeated appliance problems or our car breaking down while driving on the highway), I went into a tailspin. I didn’t have a thread of coping energy left.

This tight schedule and daily cycle has created a wavelength that must change. I imagine the monitor of a hospital that measures pulse but instead of only pulse, this screen displays daily energy expenditure, big thoughts, meditations, and regular movements. My pattern has become filled with jagged lines, a few high spikes and a number of quick, sharp downturns.  There are no more rolling hills and valleys, no uplifting waves of blue sky thinking and no slow climbing arches of meditation.

A few months back, I was fortunate to hear Ferran Adria speak. He is a famous chef with a brilliant mind who discussed, through his Spanish translator, his thoughts on creativity, generosity of spirit and pushing boundaries. As he philosophized about how one must make time and space for the ultimate creativity, I felt my mind soaring like an eagle over the edge of a cliff. It was exhilarating. It was a feeling I hadn’t enjoyed in a long time. With a renewed taste of that freedom and mental space, I realized that something had to change. The next day, I made some big decisions. I began to make changes that would help me and my family find some energy reserves again. And, these changes will offer me time now and then to find my blue sky – a world where rationality has no place.

My plan for 2012 is to change my wavelength. I am aiming for a few broad, high reaching, rolling waves to accompany the fast and busy ups and downs of motherhood and daily work. Breaking inertia is always hard so I know that it will not be easy.

If I have not lost your attention with this long post, I thank you for reading. Writing a blog is a often like standing in a bright spotlight delivering a monologue to an unknown audience. To make it more of a conversation, perhaps you would like to share your hopes, dreams or simple resolutions for the coming year?