Holiday Haiku & OLW

As most of you know from Christmas day until New Year my blog
will be dedicated to creativity and music – The Top 2000 Blog Party –
so this will be my last ‘regular’ post in 2012.

Let’s start with a haiku then.
I dived into my book case and I found a nice “Holiday Haiku” for you!

I submit this last-haiku-of-the-year to Haiku my Heart Friday and to all
my wonderful friends in the Haiku circle: may your holidays be filled with
light, joy and laughter!

I promised you I would tell you about my ‘One Little Word’ and let me start by telling you about the word that accompanied me in 2012. I always make the first page in my ‘Chronicles’ about the word I chose for the year, and last year that word was ‘Core’.

I never showed you the page I made at the beginning of 2012 because I thought it might find its way into FEATURING – but it didn’t, so I can now show you the page. Here’s also the article I wrote.

One Little Word: CORE

A few years ago, Ali Edwards began a tradition of choosing one word for herself each beginning of a New Year. She inspired a lot of people who follow that ‘One Little Word’ tradition. The idea is to choose one word that sums up what you want for yourself in the New Year. A word that you can focus on, mediate on, and reflect upon in your daily life. This is the story of my word for 2012.

The one little word that I choose to guide me this year is ‘Core’. It is a powerful word that should help me with all the changes and new endeavors that I am facing this year. In stormy times, it will help me stay focused and prevent feeling overwhelmed by too many commitments. I trust that my deepest core, my being, will always know what is good for me. I just have to make time to reflect and listen to it.

On this page, I glued multiple pictures that make up my inner being. The images on the bottom layer are not always visible anymore because of the paint. The layer consists of a picture of waves, which refers to the sea and how everything comes and goes and flows. The image of the woman, a sticker with the reproduction of a painting by Modigliani, symbolize the nudity and open-mindedness in my hidden ‘being’. An image of the painting ‘ Motherhood ‘ is no longer recognizable under the layers of paint. It is painted over on purpose and the image depicts that, despite the fact that my son moved out last year, motherhood is a big and important part of me. Of course, this artwork could not do without words – after all I am a writer! That part of me is symbolized by a shred of paper torn from a dictionary. An image of brains reminds me of the fact that I must remain attentive and studious. The Moon is a reference to the female and mystical element in myself and the heart symbolizes the love that surrounds me. Furthermore, I added a picture of my constellation, Libra. It points out to me how I must keep on ‘weighing’ mine and others’ words and actions fairly. In particular, I must stay fair and honest to myself; what may be the hardest. Finally, a number of stamps represent the contact with the outside world.  Whether it is through my blog and the Internet or in real life, contact with other people is important. This art journal page represents my being with which I confidently face a new year.

It turned out CORE was a well chosen word – I needed it quite often during the past year. As you all know, I started a new adventure (FEATURING magazine) that required getting a lot of new things done, decisions to make, people to write and so on… I held on to this word and my CORE every time I was in doubt and was glad that I choose this word in 2012 – it helped me through the year!

The word for 2013 came to me last Month. I did not even have to think much about it… it seemed such a logical word that I embraced it right away: PERSEVERE (in Dutch: doorzetten, volhouden)

The two words, CORE and PERSEVERE, came together the other day, when there were trouble with the last issue of FEATURING (see this post) and it felt like the ‘old word’ made place for the ‘new word’, strengthening me that I again choose a good word to accompany me in the next year. I will record the word on the first page of my new Chronicles journal soon.

And this was it, my friends. My last post in 2012.
I am looking forward to next Tuesday, when the Top 2000 festivities start on my blog. There will be music all around and an every day post with art, inspired by the music. The submissions are starting to come in already and I myself have finished the first ‘top 2000 pages’ . The radio will be playing 24/7 on my blog as of Christmas Day (noon) and  I hope you will stop by next week to say HI and admire everyone’s work.

I wish you a nice weekend and happy holidays!
Be nice to each other!