New, Yeah?

2019 is three (now four) days in. I am writing this onboard a Jetstar flight from the Gold Coast to Melbourne, where I have not been for more than two weeks. I have sunburnt skin, fading ant bites and an overdue phone bill. I also have no desire to be in the city or back to reality at all.

I was going to do a post about being burnt out, because the year’s hectic spiral certainly caught up on me and I was having daily breakdowns come the last two weeks of December.

There are lessons and steps I am needing to put in place to avoid this happening again, and support I need to enlist….I am grateful for the people who got me through this time!

But the feeling is muted for now because I finally got to pull away from city life and have an incredibly enriching time at Woodford Folk Festival then at my friend’s place in the mountains in NSW, near the Gold Coast.

Some personal poetic revelations were made that will hopefully ooze out into my musings over the next few weeks.

Or they will just stay in my heart like a Polly Pocket.

Whilst the burn out feeling seems somewhat distant, I can feel the pressure that is the oncoming creative tasks and regular hustle that is being an independent artist, yoga teacher and later a student coming back with every day of the new year that passes.

Some people hate this time of year, because there is this kind of pressure to kick new goals, look back, brag on social media and maintain a tidy rig whilst drinking and eating too much.

I didn’t put many expectations on it, yet also feel the sense of needing to start things off “right.”

Rig and resolutions included.

(Rig is a super euphemism for body, so if someone has a “tidy rig” it means they are fit etc, as opposed to a “sloppy rig” or “loose rig.”)

My last year’s NY intention was to slow down. I managed till about June. The second half of the year wasn’t so much fast, but full, so it meant that there wasn’t time for such things as cups of tea and mornings sans alarm, or days off for that matter.

2019 so far, I have two, which I won’t share with you unless you ask me. (Ha! How is that for forced engagement/ seeing if anyone actually cares!)

Then there is kind of an on the side goal/mission as I started it before I left Melbourne.

I want to see as many sunsets as I can this year.

I wrote about sunsets in Thailand on my last post, and the fact that they do happen every day has got me wanting to practice what I preach.

The ones in Whanganui, my hometown, I almost missed had my brother not reminded me. They had us running across the road with not enough jackets, to lie under an orange sky that was reflected on the historic river. I loved being able to step outside with a full belly and hear the cicadas.

Sunsets at Woodford were framed by the trees. The Aussie bush more lush in this part of Queensland than the dull tones of gum in Victoria. They happened much earlier than expected, which was a delight because it meant more time under a starry night sky. (I saw three sunrises there too, that’s another post…)

So here is my brief ode to the new year. It's not anything fancy, I'm just getting it out there. 

Out with the old,

in with the New, Yeah?

JJ