Reflections On What Makes Me
What made you and moved you in 2022?
Okay so I’m on vacation, still recovering from winter illness and capitalism's exhaustion, and TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY so this post will be brief. And **I promise** more thoughtful pieces will be coming soon. But I didn’t want to leave y'all hanging before the New Year.
For many of us, the New Year marks a bittersweet time passage, a lamentation of what’s gone, and an affirmation of what’s to come. The New Year can also be about making oneself anew, a recognition that time is an ingredient for change. But time is tricky. Time, especially after living through a pandemic, compresses and expands seemingly uncontrollably. Around this time of year, I inevitably feel a twinge of powerlessness to time. So I’ve established a ritual for me to use time as a binding agent in my spiritual growth. Consider the word “make.”
make (verb) - to cause (something) to exist or come about; bring about
Now consider what makes you, what wills you to exist. Time is a member in our making, an immutable cosmic force that can will things into existence. Beautifully, as cosmic beings, we also carry the magic of making. To sync up with time rather than fear it, or resent it I remind myself of the power to make, to will things into being just as time is a force in my own making.
This blog is all about honoring the creations (the makings) that make your life worth living. When I reach into myself I find a mosaic pieced together by the various creations that have imprinted on my spirit. Before you leave 2022 I invite you to reflect on the pieces of art that have profoundly made you this year.
Did you encounter art that made you feel whole?
Did you encounter art that changed how you create?
Did you encounter art that made you a better person?
Did you encounter art that changed how you practice living?
Did you encounter art that changed how you practice loving?
Around this time, I usually make a playlist to capture the essence of my year in retrospect. This year has been all about transforming my relationship with self and family (as an extension of self). In celebration of the people who made me, I offer you a playlist of the songs that made me. I grew up dancing and learning and living to this music (I’m also very certain I was conceived to a few of these songs).
I encourage you to do the same exercise. Make something that allows you to consciously fold the wisdom of your old self into the limitlessness of a self that’s not yet born.
Cheers!