Happy New Year 2014!

Happy New Year 2014 , a photo by Ayala Moriel on Flickr.

Wishing you all a very happy 2014!

May it be a beautiful year, full of love, health and happiness! And may you always find time to smell the roses, both literally and figuratively speaking. Time is our greatest asset - may we all learn how to use it wisely!

The above is a photo of a photo: a beautiful postcard of the steam-clock in Gastown, taking by my photographer friend Zak of Fertile Images that was given to me last night by the artists, beautifully packaged with glittery snowflakes. 

Laying out plans and goals and establishing a renewed interest in the values and people that are important to us has become a sort of a secular Western tradition. New Year's resolutions seem to be too often focused on very specific goals (losing weight, exercising, making more money...), usually neglected before January comes to a close. I've been always a firm believer in making each day of my life be what I want my life to be, in all its aspects if at all possible. Maintaining a balance is not a small feat in our hurried, shallow and cluttered lifestyle.

It's all about time. While we don't know how many days or years we'll get to live, we all are allotted 24 hours a day. It's entirely up to us what we do with these 24 hours. For me, a perfect day will be one which is balanced and contains the things that are important to me. In essence: breath, love and create.

The purpose of new year's resolutions should not be to make you feel like an underachiever, but rather to inspire you. That's why I like the daily approach. It's not about taking it "one day at a time" (which could easily lead you to slipping steadily down a slippery slope to destruction, or plateau at best); but to make achieving those goals all the more doable. If you're a task-oriented person, setting up big goals might lead to procrastination because you might be worried that once you start, you won't be able to leave your desk until the job is finished. With the one day at a time approach, as long as you dedicate a sufficient amount of time each day to those bigger goals and projects in your life -  you will get there. You will get it done.

So, what do I really wish for us all this year? Find the time, each day, to do the important things to us: breath and connect to the present moment and our body; play with our kids; wake up each morning with the excitement that today, we will create something new.