2013 was such a blissful year. It left me feeling like I didn’t want to let go.
I wanted to take all of the best things and bunch them up in a ball and carry them with me into the new year.
So when I tried to come up with my word for 2014, I had so many words and ideas floating around, that I could not make up my mind and choose just one word.
I have learned in the years since I started my business, that I tend to over-do. 2013 was my year that I stepped back, started saying no, and allowed more time for myself, my friends and family and everything I love.
But I still felt I wasn’t soaking in all of that joy and goodness.
When I looked back at it all, I didn’t want to let go. Yet it all flew by so fast. Too fast.
So I scribbled all of the words circling in my head, listened to Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth and painted my heart out.
And soon the same idea kept finding its way back into my mind.
It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat, Pray Love, “You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day.”
My word for 2013 was bliss. And since I didn’t want to let that go, I realized I didn’t have to and kept it as my word for 2014.
But I also added to it mindfullness, stillness, and giving back, remembering that it is not just my actions and do-ing that speaks, but also my pure presence every day.
And that is what I long for most in the new year… to just be.
Thank you again (and again) for your continued support and kindness. If you have a word or blissful idea for 2014, I’d love to know!
xo,
………….
ps. If you’d like to keep up on all of the creative projects I will be putting out into the world this year, sign up for my newsletter here.
pps. I’m also currently listening to the audio book for Elizabeth Gilbert‘s latest book, The Signature of All Things, and, it too, is quite wonderful.
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I'M JULIETTE
A painter, writer, and creator of The School Of Happy Painting, online courses to help you loosen up, let go, and develop your own unique style.
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8 comments
Erika
Thank you for the inspiration!
juliette crane
very happy to share 🙂 thank you!
MaryLou
My heart resonates with your art work. The colors and freedom of form draw me in to look into the layers of textures, figurative and literal, that you use with such seeming abandon. Thank you for sharing your internal journey thru your artistic expressions.
juliette crane
thank you! i so appreciate you sharing the ways you respond to my work… it keeps the whole story going 🙂
Tisha Smith
It’s so funny, because I had never actually chosen a word for a year. But for some reason I kept seeing the idea of a word to embody for the year being done by so many awesome folks. It got me thinking to say the least. I will say that, in my own life, I think courage is something that I will be mindful of. In other words – showing up in life to be the person I’m capable of being. That’s a big one. I’m grateful that your post reminded me of that.
p.s. I just finished reading The Signature of All Things – I loved it. 🙂
juliette crane
courage is huge! i love what you’ve said about it and how you’re inspiring it into your life.
Anne Schwankhart
thank you for sharing your words and thoughts for 2014. mine is authenticity… already proving to be interesting 😉 i also just finished Signature of All Things, loved it, so much depth, a work of art… haven’t been able to start another book since, just to linger with those characters a little longer. Enjoy your sabbatical, what a wonderful idea!
juliette crane
the signature of all things amazed me in its depth of characters… i so felt like i was living there with them. happy new year!