june at noon

The first new sketch in 2013!

I’ve said it before, but January may be one of my favorite months of the year (despite my deep and abiding love for Summer). This wasn’t always the case, but I have come to really appreciate the resetting that takes place at the beginning of a new year, not just from the calendar turning over but from the closing of a lovely but very long and full holiday season. By about December 28, I start longing for a change. I want to pack away or clean out, make room for the new, and return to the simple, the everyday. So January feels good, fresh, like sunlight bouncing off the snow. I look forward to riding that energy for the first few months of the year.

As I start looking forward, start breathing in the cool, clean air of a new year, I’ve set some simple goals for myself. I want to:

1. Find my creative energy and start making art again—for fun, for growth. I want to be an artist who creates because I want to, or need to, because I love it, regardless of the feedback, the sales, the results. Creating just to create. If that results in business success down the line (and I would like it to), that’s icing.

2. Keep running! Improve my 5k race speed and run a total of 450 miles for the year.

3. Start fleshing out some of the larger-scale artistic ideas that have been floating in my mind, actually make them start to happen and believe in them, rather than writing them off as pipe dreams.

4. Be more present in my life—in my creative pursuits, but also as a wife and mother and friend.

There are other more specific dream-marbles rolling around in my brain, but I think that covers the basics, and I think it’s enough to make 2013 feel full of possibility. What goals do you have for this time of refreshing?