New Year, Rule #1 and Cleo in Paris

The new year has begun. For some reason I feel like this is going to be a good one. As many in the blogging community are doing, I have chosen a word to represent something I want to bring to my life. This is a word I will carry with me throughout the year, hold it close to me and hope that putting focus on it will bring about some of the change I have been looking for. I wanted a creative word, a unique word…you know, something quirky that would impress…but what kept coming to me was generic, it moved something in me and I decided to stay true to what my soul was saying to me. My word for 2010 is freedom. I want to spend time this year looking at things that scare me, hold me back, frustrate me or just plain need to be put to rest. I want to grow wings and set flight. I want to embrace the expansive, sometimes terrifying freedom that has been calling me.

I also saw Zombieland and inspired by the hard taught lessons that show up as rules in the film, I am going to be creating my own rules throughout the year. RULE #1: NEVER READ THE REVIEWS BEFORE WATCHING THE MOVIE OR READING THE BOOK. Why this rule? It seems silly at first glance, but something that has kinda been bubbling under the surface for me recently is the way access to public opinion shapes my own opinion and experience of something. When I read a review, I feel like I am setting myself up to feel a certain way about something. If people don’t like it then I won’t like it right? If people love it, I’ll love it, if it makes people laugh, I’ll laugh. If it makes people cry, I’ll cry. And where am I in all this “experienced” emotion. Nowhere. I want to remember what I think, what I feel, what I like and what I see. I want to be surprised. So that is rule #1.

Cleo from 5 to 7

In a rather strange way, this leads right into a movie I was watching today. It is called Cleo from 5 to 7. I won’t tell you what I think of it (see Rule #1). I was watching it when I thought of the rule and strangely, about 15 minutes later, cleo said something about how you should never read a review before watching a movie. Strange. Serendipity. A message that I’m on the right track maybe?

So this year…here’s to this year. A year of authenticity and a year of freedom. I am welcoming it with my arms outstretched and my eyes wide open. I hope you are too!