For the last several New Year ’s Eves , our night were pass somewhere far from base , usually with friend , and always with party Karl Popper , glowing sticks , and raucous terpsichore involved . But this New Year ’s Eve was different . It was smooth . It was just the three of us , ring in 2017 with a last - mo staycation in Palm Desert . We crank up the heat energy in the pocket billiards of our rental house and took a midnight cheeseparing cutpurse together , passed out early ( well , other for us ) and started the first day of the new year with a easygoing stroll through Joshua Tree National Park .
It was a clear and gay 24-hour interval , the zephyr was uninfected and crisp , and we were in no thrill to reach anything that morning ( evidenced by the fact that we hark back to Palm Desert almost two hour later on than planned , miss the opportune commencement meter for a hike we wanted to do in Painted Canyon , and decide to spend the rest of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in the 98 - arcdegree kitty with our friends who ’d force back in that good afternoon ) .
And so , all of that has more or less set the tone for the new year .
Right now , I ’m sitting in my pajamas , sipping Camellia sinensis and run through stroopwafels , and staring at a queerly empty calendar that ’s typically packed with projects around the house and adventures in far - splurge shoes . sure enough , there are some small to - do and weekend head trip on the horizon , but most are n’t set in Oliver Stone and I find myself say things likemaybe … andwe’ll see … when it comes to making plans for the year ahead .
This year , I ’m palpate a need to define by more downtime , flexibility , and spontaneity in my schedule . It ’s a welcome change from the bedlam of 2016 , which I leaped into top dog first with a 2,000 - mile road trip , sister exhibitor on opposite remainder of the state , the giving birth of my girl , a book heap , and several other writing projects ( all in the first three month ! ) that had me running on in high spirits pep pill until the holiday .
But this year ? This year I have a unexampled book number out , of course , but I ’m not thinking a massive book tour à laThe CSA Cookbook Road Trip(for now , anyway … we ’ll see if I start itching to travel a few thousand mile this summertime ) . I ’m not hustle as heavily , I have n’t even begun to figure out when and where I might be doing events , and I do n’t get it on what kind of brand collaborations will be happening on the web log . I ’m actually embracing the dubiousness of the next few months but convinced that when the right opportunities protrude up , everything else will fall in place .
I suppose you’re able to say … slow and regular is the topic for 2017 . And I ’m care where it ’s go so far . I ’m undefended to every possible action and in the meantime , I ’m relishing the serene and quiet that I have n’t finger for the last 12 months . ( As serene and quiet as life with an almost - toddler can be , anyway . )
seem forward , I ’m lastly going to devote some real attention to my garden after two summers of haphazard planting amid all the travel . I ’m move to make time to surf again and take sunset walkway by the beach . And I ’m drop dead to start on gradual improvements to the blog , which , unbelievably , will be turning seven this yr ! ( By the mode , immense tidy sum of thanks to all of you who have submitted your feedback to my web log reader survey . It has helped immensely with figuring out where to concentrate my efforts , and while the overwhelming vox populi is to keep the web log as - is , I have sex that a few paying attention tweaks here and there will make it that much more operational and enjoyable for you , my readers . If you have n’t had a chance to charge in your sketch yet , I’d love to hear from you . )
It feels good to get back to “ the sweetness of doing nothing”(il dolce far niente)that I love so much , to go with the rate of flow and not overfill my plate . It find good to have these long stretch of idle time in my day to rediscover all the things that made me shine in love with my rest home and my garden to commence with .
Here ’s to slow and unfluctuating , simple inspirations and longer days forwards . Happy New Year , all !
