2017: I Am Here (with love)

Love

Starlings In Winter, by Mary Oliver

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can't imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.

Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.

**

Here we are, at the start of another year. I thought Mary Oliver would be a good way to kick us off.

As per always, I’m avoiding resolutions as we head steadfast into 2017.  Last year, I talked about finding a word to guide the year and came up with “Flow” or “Flow-t” for myself.  This year I’m not landing on a word so much as I am an intention. And I think it lives in this:

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.”

I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing.

I also recently re-read this from another one of my favorites:

Wild Songs, by Brian Andreas

I wish for you a life

Where your blood sings

With the voice of an eager, wild thing.

 With a voice that says

I am here

 & in this short time,

This is the song I sing

Because I can.

“With a voice that says I am here.”

I am here.

How many New Year’s Eves find us scratching our heads wondering where the heck the year has gone, realizing we’ve been sleepwalking through it- not paying attention… here, but not here.  And how many January 1sts find us shrugging our shoulders and saying “well, I guess I’ll just just go ahead and lose that weight this year because I can’t think of anything else to do.”

The sun came up beautifully on January 1^st from the place where I was standing. It struck me as an invitation. An invitation to be here for this year, to be awake, to be alive, to be here.

I’m totally having an Ebenezer Scrooge moment, aren’t I? Throwing open the windows with glee and shouting to all who would hear: “I Haven’t Missed It!!!!!”

But that’s the way I feel. 2017—I haven’t missed it!!  Hot damn, I’ve got plans and intentions for this sucker!

So, you know what? I guess I do have a word for the year after all. It’s love.

Because the best way for me to feel light and frolicsome and beautiful and fearless, the best way for me to sing the song that I can sing, is to accept the sun’s daily invitation to look up, breathe deep, and love the world all over again and all over again and all over again.

It’s 2017. What do you want from it? You have 362 opportunities to look up and accept the sun’s invitation to embrace another day… and find the song that only you are meant to sing.

2017. It’s yours for the taking. What will you do with it?

So speaking of those plans and intentions up there, I have some exciting news! What started as the tiniest seed of an idea more than three years ago is now on the verge of becoming reality. “On Wings & Whimsy: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary” is just weeks away from being available for purchase! The interactive journal-version of this weekly blog, On Wings & Whimsy invites you to kick off your year in personal reflection and celebration, and is a gift you deserve to give yourself. Buy one for yourself, buy one for a friend, tell a friend to buy one for themselves, tell them to tell their friends about it too. Let's kick off our year in wings (inspiration) and whimsy (laughter); let's make it a movement even.  Stay tuned!

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“2017: I Am Here (with love)”, The Leadership Program, 2017