2014 was a tough year. With illness, injury, and other assorted grown-up “stuff” there wasn’t much time for ballet. 2015 is starting out equally strained. BUT, you know, sometimes it helps to look at things in a different way, from a different perspective, because it’s all true, it can just look completely new in an unusual light. Normally I would be focusing on today, January of 2015, the start of a new year. But right now I’m still in the midst of something and although it will be concluded soon, we all know that in the realm of the grown-up, things don’t always begin and end as cleanly as “once upon a time” and “they all lived happily after.” So right now I’m looking at the length and breath of a brand new year; a long year, new and untouched but so full and overflowing with amazing things!

Sometimes we get stuck on a single correction or a single class and it’s good to learn anew each and every opportunity. But sometimes we need to look at where we started or where we are going, all the progress that we’ve made and all the things that we are going to accomplish this year. Be brave and dream big! Throw down and go for it! Some days it’s going to be little turtle steps, it’s okay because other days you will amaze yourself and come out of the gate like a charging lion! I believe in a beautiful, big new year, I hope you do too.

~All will be well.

There are so many sayings about time… time heals all wounds; time flies; time is the longest distance between two places. As I sit here behind my laptop at the end of 2014, I’m inclined to believe that time is neither friend nor foe. On its own, time doesn’t promise anything. Time doesn’t promise a return on investment, only work does. Only effort, focus, and work promise an outcome, not just time passing with each ticktock on the clock. 2013 was the year of the dissertation and 2014 was the year of recuperation. Although necessary, in retrospect it is also abundantly clear that time alone doesn’t heal – recuperation too is a work in progress. But as I head into 2015, I’m hopeful because I think I’ve learned some valuable lessons. Time passes but that fact alone doesn’t get the job done. I can use time wisely but I can also use time poorly; it’s not random, it’s a choice. I need to listen to my mind and my body and rest when I need it but recuperation is an activity of sorts – that’s not to say that rest shouldn’t be just that, restful. But there is resting and then there is wasting a bunch of time and not getting any actual rest and rejuvenation.

I actually haven’t been to many ballet classes in 2014. I’ve enjoyed watching much more than dancing. I’ve stepped back a lot. But it was also a good year in terms of reaching out to more ballet friends. Learning more about dance in general. And here and there, when I wasn’t just wasting time, I did rest my body and my soul.

So I welcome 2015 and I wonder… 2015, the year of ??? Will it be the year of using time wisely? Will it be the year of dance? Will it be the year of fitting into my skinny jeans? Will it be the year of meeting more of my virtual ballet buddies? Will it be the year of blogging? What will 2015 bring? Maybe a bit of everything, maybe even more than I can imagine.