By Neal Lemery 1/2/2024
The new year offers such potential. The new year’s calendar on the frig is already filling up, but there are plenty of empty spaces for what could lie ahead.
I try to write on the calendar in pencil, to leave open the possibilities of changing my mind, altering my schedule, and being more spontaneous. As I look back on 2023, I realize that the most fun I had, the most meaningful events were those that popped up at the last minute, that I could seize the moment and be spontaneous.
Whimsical is my word for 2024, being open to new things, new activities, new challenges, and not caring so much that I’m trying something new or challenging. I’m looking for fun and new energies, new opportunities, some new growth for myself. I want more excitement, more creative challenges. I want to be open, to be free to learn new thing, try new experiences, to feel relaxed and enjoy what lies ahead, and me simply letting go and letting be.
In my art, there’s always a contradiction. Part of me wants to be disciplined, organized, methodical. I struggle with being too obsessed with structure, predictability. Yet, I also want to honor and cultivate my creativity, my Muse. My best, most satisfying artwork comes from being in the moment, being spontaneous. Yes, being whimsical, not always following the rules of what is to be expected.
The routines in life offer me structure, organization, an easy, predicable road to follow. But the path of predictability does not always lead me to the desired result, or the beauty that I hope to express. I can easily get into a rut, of following the expected path, and not finding the river of creativity and artistry that I want to find. “Same ol, same ol” is not what I want, but the predicable “me” tends to seek that out.
I am working on being in the moment, of fanning that spark of creativity and unpredictability, that spirit of creativity that lies deep inside of me, the little boy that wants and needs to come out and play. Sometimes, I need to jump off the path and avoid predictability, of rule following. I need to honor that little boy and let myself daydream, be present the moment. To simply be the creative.
This year, this new space of what could be unlimited permission to be creative and spontaneous, awaits my exploration. I need to work at giving myself permission to let loose and to let the Muse take me where I need to wander. The challenge for me is to give myself permission to engage in the daydreaming, the spontaneity, to be less structured, more forgiving of myself and the pull of old voices telling me to just follow the rules and stay on the beaten path.
As I tell my friends, and as I need to tell myself, Onward!
Books: NEW book – BE THE CHANGE – One Random Act of Kindness at a Time; Neal’s other books include: Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and Change; Finding My Muse on Main Street, Homegrown Tomatoes, and Mentoring Boys to Men
