It’s the Year of the Onion… it’s always the year of the onion.

This is my last selfie of 2022. Haven’t gotten around to the first selfie of the year yet – how is it already a week?? 
I like to ease into the new year like a warm bath. It takes time to get intentional. The how outweighs the when.
Start as you mean to go on.
The week between the holidays and the new year are too full and noisy to digest the past year and contemplate a vision for the next. I use the opening weeks on the calendar as a dress rehearsal with opening night being my family’s annual Chinese New Year’s gathering. I meditate and marinate on goals, intentions, dreams, aspirations; all those seasonal words waiting to be silk screened on a tote bag.

This year I did a thing I’ve never done before. It was a revelation. Before looking at the year ahead I looked at the past year. Really looked. I went through my calendar and noted events that stood out, good and bad. I learned a lot, like how distorted my perception was. Until I looked, recency  bias had me believing that ’22 couldn’t end soon enough.
It had started with a raucous bang, #busyandblessed!, but as it cycled down with physical and metaphysical hiccups, I was left stifling whimpers through the countdown. Without the jaundiced lens of memory, I can see the facts of my days – I see all the awesome events, professional and personal; reunions and reconnections; sun drenched beach days and laughter when it rained. It was the year of the onion; layered, pungent and bringing me to tears. But so much flavor. I’m grateful for all of it.

When I look at this selfie I see someone who thanked her shadows for their service and is committed to move forward unfettered from the anxieties of last year. I see the clarity possible when I let the still small voice guide. I see me in the process, not at the beginning and hopefully still far from the end – just committed to #keepgoing. 

I invite you to take the next two weeks prior to the Lunar New Year to experiment with your vision for the year. What can you do to build on last year’s accomplishments? Is there a single word that can be your touchstone for the year? Is there an animal or a color that embodies the energy you want to carry? Take them for a test drive. It’s not when you start, it’s how you start.

My word is commit. My color is orange… as in ‘orange I glad I kept going?’