Taking Stock & Dusting Down
3 questions to ask yourself
at the beginning of a new cycle
Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings, gateways and passage
is a busy boy this time of year.
We gotcher New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, we gotcher Imbolc (thought to be from the Irish “oimelc” “in the belly” or “ewe’s milk,” the day of celebrating coming light and the seeds stirring in the belly of the earth). And the Year of the Tiger is approaching.
As a bonus, this year we have what I’m calling the Day of Decisions - 2/2/22. Two is all about duality, determination and decisions in the Tarot. I’m trying to make faster, bolder decisions this year, so I can move to the next decision.
We get to celebrate a month of taking stock and looking forward.
I love this time even more than most because my birthday is New Year’s Eve, and I’ve always been one of those people to make massive lists of goals . I always tell myself that even if I only hit half of them, it is better than not making the goal.
For me, thinking about goals is exciting, and I am emboldened as I trudge down the road of happy destiny into the DOING of them, where hard work, fate, and shifting circumstances turn into mentors, trials and abysses of the Hero’s Journey.
No matter.
A goal is a story
in your mind you want
to tell yourself,
and I like doing that,
so it works for me.
I spun this coin, and a little fairy emerged.
In Scotland, they know how to party - Hogmanay & First Foot
I love how the Scots handle the New Year. On New Year’s eve, their tradition is to take stock of your house and clean from top to bottom - to fix broken things, stock up the pantries, and make sure everything is set, safe, and abundant.
The idea is that how you start the year is how you’ll spend it, and if you have a good start, you’ll have more of a chance to spend the next 12 months in fruitfulness, cleanliness and order.
Dusting Down
On one weekend just before the turn of the year, I spend a day taking stock and dusting down - not in the floating energy of emails and desks and easels and brushes, but the earthy energy of cleaning my kitchen.
For those of you who don’t know this about me, I built my own house through Homes for Islanders, now I’ve been here almost 6 years.
And that day, cleaning my kitchen, I realized I hadn’t cleaned that VERY top shelf WAAY above the cupboards for like, five. Ack!
So I got up there with gloves and sprays and sponges, dusted and scrubbed, up a ladder and down.
And of course the the counter caught a lot of dust and dirt.
That’s how you do it - dust from the top down, so the dust settles, and then dust the furniture and clean the floor last.
“When you dust down your thoughts first - going from the highest level of your own thought process and “cleaning up” your thinking, making goals can be a different experience. ”
I was feeling all pleased with myself and ready for Hogmanay, which is the Scottish New Year celebration, with fireworks, and the tradition of First Foot, where neighbors go walking around to visit friends as the year turns.
It’s good luck to welcome all who visit, and the first person across your threshold brings luck - especially if that person is a dark-haired, handsome gent.
He crosses from the old year, looking back, into the new year, looking forward, just like Janus.
Perhaps Janus had dark hair with just a tad bit o’ grey. If doorways could talk.
Perhaps this practice had something to do with the continual invasions from Viking raiders, who tended to be fair-haired. A dark stranger would bring luck.
So getting ready for the new year is a whole production.
But as I sat looking at my clean kitchen and took stock, I realized this is how I think.
When you plan ahead on anything, there are a few ways to go - either bottom up, like when we built our houses, making sure the site was stable, digging the holes first, pouring the foundation, then building the house.
This “clean from the top down” idea is as much about the process of thinking as it is about cleaning up the dust of everyday life.
Photos by Faie
When you examining your thought process, what will you find?
What dust and cobwebs fall down on everything else in your mind? Just by being aware of them, it helps to clean up the unhelpful thoughts and can see how they affect everything else.
I encourage you to “take stock and dust down” this during our month of endings and beginnings. Start at the top, with your thoughts.
For instance - are there areas of your life where I blame others for my uncomfortable emotions or circumstances? Are there areas where I am thinking in old patterns that no longer serve me?
Dusting out the cobwebs helps you see
what falls out into the light.
From there you can clean it up.
Taking Stock
Here are 3 questions that have been helpful to me at the beginning of a new year or cycle.
Where was I year ago?
This is where journaling comes in handy. I look back at my entry from February 2nd, 2021, here goes:
Talked to GW this morning about the Left Hand of Darkness (LeGuin).
”Feedback” & “problem solving” creates a “threat response,” (notes from a book I was reading by David Rock). In this workshop I’m planning, I want to bring different parts of their brain together to think about things in a new way. “I love to learn, but I hate to be taught.” - Winston Churchill. Things I want to learn and teach about: patterns in nature, Li - the manifestation of gestalt - inherent patterns of things, A Pattern Language, ancient earthworks, the Spiral Jetty, Andy Goldsworthy, etc. etc. my housemates are driving me crazy!
A random sampling of where I was a year ago. This year, my housemates AREN’T driving me crazy - partly because I really took stock of how I was thinking about the situation, and fixed my thoughts first, then my actions.What have you learned?
Oh, mugosh. This year has been an incredible year of change for me. At the beginning of each year I write a list in my journal of ALL the new things I did during that year - every single thing I can remember that I accomplished that meant something - and failures, too, so I can remember the things I attempted, and how I then shifted to accomplish that goal.
This year the list was (single spaced) 7 pages long. I still go back to it to remember certain things and just take stock in my mind. I have come this far. I have done these things. It is helpful when I am frustrated or down.
What’s next?
This is where the mop hits the floor. Am I going to stay in non-productive thought patterns, or am I going to move to the next level, dust down that top shelf, look at that grime, become aware, feel uncomfortable, clean it up, and create change toward what I really want to do and how I want to live?
You already have a vision for your life.
You are living that vision right now.
But each turn of the wheel is a chance to live towards what you envision next for yourself.
So now is a great time to spend some time dusting, cleaning those upper shelf of your mind - letting it all fall our so you can look at it, and clean it up. So you can take stock of where you are and how far you’ve come.
So you can open up the doors to the New Year and welcome in that tall dark stranger that is your future.
Aaaand, here’s what I’m up to lately:
I’m creating new classes on my website - taking them off Teachable and putting them right here!:
I’m working on a Build Your Art Website on Squarespace course.
You can get on the waiting list here.Here’s a sampling of what’s in my Practical Magic for Artists in Business course.
For more info, sign up here.
Listening to Yourself as an Artist
Your Creative Process - The Kolbe A Index
Enneagram Insights
The 4 Tendencies
The 12 Archetypes & Your Creative Process
Alignment Overview
The 4 Hats of the Artist in Business
Embrace Impostor Syndrome
Being the Creator You Envision
What (Exactly) is the Creative Process?
Procrastination Strategies
Evolve Your Creative Process (Here’s Mine!)
Be the Leader - The Empire Mentality
Setting Goals from the Inside Out
Being the Operator
Artwork Archive Walkthrough
Be the Promotor without Fear
How to Stay on Track
The Commitment Scale
Mission, Vision, Values, Oh, MY!
Build Your Vision Script (PDF)
The 4 Hats Quarterly Check-in (PDF)
