snow, freshly fallen

I am reviving this blog. Err, well revamping might better suit what I've done. New start for a new year or something like that. It was bittersweet to look back over what I had posted in the past with a span of years between so that my eyes were fresh to what had seemed so pressing and important then. To be able to note all the changes that had come and to be able to close that chapter.

The old posts have been stored away. What is it that Nina Simone boasts so often -- it's a new day, it's a new dawn, it's a new life... for me, and I'm feelin' good.

So yes, a big blank canvas ready to be reshaped. I heard tell of it once, probably on PBS, of an artist who would paint pieces and then store them for years. Some were shared or viewed by other eyes, most weren't. And when time would come for a showing, he would go to the ones he had and if being displeased would whitewash the canvases and start fresh. Some he covered over portions, painting out segments to re-imagine them, others were taken to a total blank slate.

That imagery resounds with me, especially at New Year. Because it isn't like we are all offered new lives. No, we just have the one. Yet in this span of the year, we can look back and choose which portions we want to rework. Some are small -- habits, attitudes, behavior patterns. Others are massive life changes. Yet.. it's an alteration that is built upon what has been.

Like snow that lays round about, deep and crisp and even -- making everything fresh and new.

Over the next couple weeks I am going to be doing just that -- purging, cleaning, sprucing... all those delicious -ing- words that while labor-intensive at the forefront leave you feeling peaceful and open for what's to come.

Here's looking forward to 2010 with hope and expectation...