2022

2022 – new year

Happy New Year! I know, January is half-begun or half-done, depending on how you look at it, but since we are greeting each other in this space for the first time, happy new year.

straight to the heart

Do you have any new year’s resolutions?

I have been asked several times and generally have just skirted the topic by saying something like, “continue good habits.”

I have never counted whether I have more “bad” habits than “good” ones, but it certainly has to help to try to focus on what works well.

That said, I do have some resolution-like actions I’d like to take this year, but I haven’t started and I haven’t put a date to all of them yet. That would have been a more complete and honest answer.

And so now, lucky you! I am going to tell you about them.

continue good habits

Get fit. Get fitter.

By summer, a clown colleague and I hope to premier a theater piece we have been working on for a year now. It’s a feminist clown performance about women’s sexuality across generations and cultures. Cool, huh? It is, I hope you can see it.

It’s several acts and an hour and ten minutes long. That’s a long time to be jumping and acting and clowning around. I need to improve my resilience and core strength.

One concrete step I have taken is a 30-day yoga challenge with an on-line instructor. I love it. That is helping but it is not enough.

Run. Years ago I was a regular runner. But I lost the habit about 20 years ago. Dog-walking and cycling here-and-there for taking care of life’s business, as well for leisure took over.

Valencia bills itself as the “city of running” and I have no idea about statistics, but causal observation tells me there are more runners here than other places I have lived. So that’s one motivating factor. I see a lot of runners around me, they look happy, and remind me that despite the pain and slog running can be, there is a lot of satisfaction and good feelings too.

But I am not yet committed fully to that “good” idea, which I know is a huge part of succeeding with these sorts change challenges.

Meanwhile, one thing I continue is trying to walk Lula 35 kilometers (22 miles) a week.

We started early morning long walks last summer when it was so hot and it was best to go out before 9. Now it’s not so much about the distance or the time of day, but simply that 35 kilometers is the sum of two, hoofing it good, one-hour long dog walks a day, and that is good for her health and mine!

Daily creative practice.

I love the morning, the stillness, and both the solitude and solidarity of it. It can be so peaceful, and I feel (happy) alone in the dark world while at the same time a light or sound signals the presence of another early-riser.

Over the years I have established an ebbing and flowing morning-time daily creative practice, and my ideal day be daily creative practices stretching though the whole day.

My core practices are meditation, journal-writing and painting, but I don’t always have time for all three. And now I have added yoga too, I may need to get up at 5 o’clock to have the time for all my daily creative practices. So far, painting has fallen off the morning agenda. But tomorrow is another chance to try to organize my time differently, because really, I don’t think getting up at 5 o’clock can be a regular thing.

Make more time for Pop Corn.

Another area to continue to nurture and encourage to grow is my connection to my clown energy, Pop Corn. We began to develop our connection just months before the pandemia (in September 2019) and I am grateful for the ways we have to get to know one another during the past years. But I also remember what street actions and playing with the public was like before the virus, masks and social distancing. It was simply more carefree. Remember those times?

Pop Corn continues to do things, take classes, give classes, do street actions, including paid work (!) and meet up with clown colleagues for rehearsals and events. But the public health situation makes it all just feel different, nevertheless, we will carry on trying to find creative, safe ways to interact with the public. Now that I know the clown part of myself, I need the contact for my own well-being.

Since I am in the center of Valencia four days a week for my teaching class, I have gotten to know quite a couple of good streets with really nice people and Pop Corn has come out a time or two and will again soon. So, maybe I will see you there?

Anyhow, with time we will know more about how all this (and much more) go. Do I ever take up running again? Is getting up at 5 o’clock a feasible thing? What do my evenings look like? What happens when Pop Corn offers her brand of magic to whoever will take it?

Thanks for reading and let me know about you in the comments below.

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