Wonderful WordPress has sent me my yearly statistics – I love their excitement for my blog, their enthusiasm for my progress. I was actually kind of surprised that I only posted 29 times this past year. I thought I’d written a lot more but I scanned the dates of my posts and see I’m a bit irregular! I write every few days for a month or two and then write nothing for the next two months. I guess you subscribers know that.

I vow to be a little more consistent in this new year.

I now know that I had so many readers in 2011 that they would fill approximately three NYC subway trains. That’s kind of cool don’t you think? But I hope to increase numbers in the new year because my purpose for blogging is to inspire folks to broaden their perspectives about what it takes for a planet to thrive, to imagine what makes us truly happy humans, and I’m thinking only 3900 “hits” doesn’t make much of an impact. 39,000 would feel a lot more potent. Help me get there, will you? Tell your friends, link me to others who might be ready to think both widely and deeply about life on this planet, comment…oh please do comment.

WordPress noted the fact that my most popular post in 2011 was January’s first one called No Detours.

That chronicled my invitation to join a cooperative art gallery and put forth the idea that there are no detours in life. Everything leads to the next thing no matter how we twist and turn to avoid what we think is a pothole.

Curiously, exactly a year later I have resigned from that same gallery.  Was it a mistake to have joined?

No way.

It just took me awhile to realize that I did not have the freedom there to display my work the way I wanted to. Art is the expression of soul…and our individuality was squelched in order to present a uniform look.  That esthetic has never fit me and didn’t seem to attract customers. But I have learned much, been inspired to paint regularly, was found by a collector, sold a few originals though still not the one which illustrated No Detours, and made good friendships which will grow through time. But now I know it’s time to leave.

Ebb and flow. The way of everything. Inspire/expire. The Tao.

It’s never too late to change our minds, renew a vow, redo a project, untangle a mess, reframe a situation or complete an unfinished project.  Sometimes beginnings stay unfinished for a long time. Maybe it’s not my destiny to finish some projects, but it WAS important to begin them. Do you have any projects or commitments like that? Aspects of your life which nag at you because they hang around gathering dust both literally and figuratively?

Speaking for myself here, I need to make peace with myself for not finishing that skirt I started knitting two winters ago. To finish or not to finish, to stay or to go, to say,” Yes,” or to say, “ No”,…the answers to such conundrums can often be found only by putting one foot in front of the other and continuing to walk, trusting there are no mistakes, no detours, only a circuitous path called living.

Happy BEGINNINGS to another GREAT CYCLE of LIFE! May your dreams pull you into your future.