Monday 3 January 2011

You might say I' m a dreamer but I'm not the only one

Welcome to the new (working) year. The 2011 TextualHealing.nl calendar is now available here - but if you are based in Wageningen or Germany - hard copies (are probably) on their way (unless I don't have your address).

It's a relief to get back to work. My end-of-year vacation lasted almost five weeks - paid work dried up at the end of November- in contrast to previous years when I have been working flat out through to Christmas Eve. I kind of thought I wanted an easy month, after a frantic autumn, - but it would have been nice to have had a little more paid work. But, December wasn't a lost month. When you are self-employed there's always a bunch of administration to do and new skills to learn. And, it is useful to have some quiet time to think about strategy and goals. Even better, I accelerated my 'inburgering' by buying a pair of skates and taking some tentative steps (almost slides) towards learning to skating on 'open-air' ice.

Anyway, the new working year begins with editing a magazine article on the benefits of organic school kitchen gardens in Ghana and a few concluding paragraphs on rural development in China and Brazil - the latter for one of my most loyal, long term (and I must admit favourite - because he is the most radical) clients. No names mentioned but - hey respect!

I realise that we probably will never create a world where the lion lies down with lamb, where the rich (to quote Warren Zevon) recognise that they are already 'sat far enough forward in the house' to not need to compete for the very front row and where we can recognise our responsibilities to future generations and Mother Earth, who sustains us all. Steely Dan once sang 'I heard it was you talking about a world where all is free, it just couldn't be' (was that a dig at John Lennon singing 'Imagine'?). But equally, by talking about better possible worlds, it is possible to inspire people to change the way they think about their place in the world, how they spend their money, and to reflect on how their actions and choices do count. So, my New Year's resolution is about 'keeping the faith' and looking for ways to find a better balance between working for the Euro and doing things that enrich my life (not an easy goal to track). Some might say that that is a luxury option, but it is a very fine line walk along.

So, I want to set my sights higher for 2011, not just for the 'countless confused, misused, abused, strung out ones and worse' - but because when playing the game of life it's important for me to remember that I have other goals beyond finding a better place to live in and a 'scrape me off the ceiling' lover. When I remember that I feel better about myself and can start to effectively make a difference.

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