A 2012th Chance to See Life's Golden Side

It's 2012!    What I love about special dates like this is they always offer opportunities to start fresh - reflect on what works and doesn't work, re-group, re-focus, and move ahead again in the direction you really want to.   Don't you just love second, third, two thousand and twelfth chances?    There is so much hope!    There is the challenge to begin to look at things from NEW and different perspectives, instead of the same ol', same ol'.   I absolutely love seeing things, and life, in new ways - what could be more fun and refreshing?

In fact, on a recent 2012 hike, while I was pondering the New Year, I was feeling a bit down on myself.  I don't always like the way I look to myself.    I was wandering through the straw-colored, dried out grassy, brown fields, bemoaning the lack of winter white which usually covers up the ugly death of late Fall.    I was allowing myself, in the spirit of my surroundings, to wallow a bit in the feeling of ugliness.  I looked carefully at a clump of dried grass, noticing its straw-like quality, and it brought back memories of my beloved uncle, now in heaven, who used to tease the little-girl me, by asking me how come my (very thin, fine) hair always looked like straw.   It was our fond joke, and I loved my uncle dearly, especially his teasing nature.   But, as you might have experienced at one time or another, my little-girl mind encoded it somewhere into the back of my brain as 'something wrong with me.'      Wouldn't you know that I would get stuck on that part of it, instead of the loving relationship, in that moment.


But as I continued hiking, and surveyed my surroundings more closely, I noticed that I was floating in this field of "amber waving grains," ... the sunlight illuminated the beauty of these 'fields of gold.'   (I often hear snippets of songs in my head, that better describe any given situation, don't you?)  Looking at these dried autumn grasses in this new light, they glistened, and shimmered, danced in the breeze, whispering promises and potential.    I was very clearly reminded that even the things we perceive as ugly, negative, dead can be seen to be life-giving, beautiful, if we but open our eyes to let the sunshine paint glowing brightness.    It's true of myself, too.    Whenever I focus on the 'unflattering' picture in my mind of how I must look to the world, I also know, deep down, that I could just as easily sift through all those photographs in my mind (or that really exist) and find an equal (if not greater) number of 'flattering' photos, that really project more of who I really am.    It is that incomprehensible tendency to somehow more readily see and accept the unflattering, critical portraits as being me, rather than allowing myself to really see those more positive and beautiful images that reflect the true me - positive and empowering.


So this 2012, I am making a concerted effort to mentally (and perhaps physically) 'un-tag' those more criticizing images of who I am (those in my mind, as well as those on the web or in concrete photos), as my daughter taught her social-network semi-literate mom she could do, and 'tag' only those images that show the real me in fine, golden, brilliant and shining form.   I think I will create a 'Vision Board'  that proudly displays all the empowering images of myself, so I don't forget who I really am.

Imagine that - a little self-esteem message emerges for me from the very 'brownness' of our winter landscape.


What would YOU like to look at from new perspective, in different light this new year?


What would it take to see your own self in golden, brilliant, shining light?


What difference might that make in your life?