So here I am in my Holiday finest and I decided that this photo is just so appropriate for my first entry of they year- despite being twenty days late (I am trying, really.) The photo is very significant for me for this 2016 and while I am not completely owning it and saying that this will be “my year” (I kind of did that last year and well, look where things turned out…), what I am sure of is that this year, means no looking back and that this year, I am at a place where I can say for sure that: there is no way to go but up. (Do you notice the sprinkle of self deprecation is that statement? Haha.)
Anyway, I decided for a sleek gown for once (I let go of the frog from) and chose a simple silhouette with sleek and clean lines with only a detachable bow silk train as my accent piece because like this piece of clothing, I am all about simplifying and making things as least complicated as I can.
Everyone constantly wants to change their lives…their relationships, their bodies, their income, their statuses and probably because it is just so easy to identify what’s wrong on the outside and bring it forth to how we feel internally. I think that if anything, this is the most painfully evident when the calendars reset and we think we are offered a blank page and a clean slate… It’s so easy to program our minds to think that a new year means a new life but the thing is: we carry ourselves and our baggage and our hangups and insecurities and hopes and worldview into that shiny fresh slate of a new life.
While the year has simply just begun, take a moment to reflect on your challenges and successes. In reality, every day can be the beginning of a new year… it is simply in your power to stay anew as you wake up every morning. While a collective importance has been placed on January 1, at the stroke of midnight, it is how you feel inside that determines the flip of the calendar from one day to the next.
This year, I choose to be happy… (and isn’t red always a happy color?) I choose to be consciously, consistently grateful for something… not everything… but there is always some thing to be glad about. I am choosing to immerse myself in things that are beautiful, peaceful and joyous and if time and circumstance prove I can’t choose this as of yet…perhaps I will choose to figure out what is blocking me and working on that instead- closing circles, cutting ties and all those things Paulo Coelho wrote in his traditional new years message. I choose change and I refuse to sit and fester in frustration. At the end of the day, what we are all looking for is happiness and I firmly believe that happiness should be active and deliberate, not passive and reactive. In a nutshell: you have to care enough to try. Happiness only comes after you’re honest about what you really want. What you’re willing to fight for. What you’re willing to follow through on.
And when you attain it…when you truly and really get to that point this year, I hope you can stay in that moment as much as you can.
Red Satin Gown With Bow Train Detail: Glitterati