We embark on 2020, and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like this will be a big year for personal growth. The surgery in the summer led to predictable personal work and introspection, despite being behind on nearly every single project. I’m grateful I survived it and I’m looking forward to a few months of peace and quiet and music with friends.
This last year was spent making music with some of the best and most insightful musicians, and I’m so grateful for those opportunities and everything I’ve learned. Terrific choirs, terrific guest artists, terrific learning opportunities. Today’s horizon looks incredibly different than last year’s, and completely different than a decade ago, and much better too.
An impulse purchase during the holidays was – The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, a topic I’ve been trying to learn more about for a year or two. Its a huge challenge. I see myself in this book so often which is helpful, and affirming that we are all in this common struggle together. I’m grateful to have it, and for the compiled research therein. I wonder how many of my friends have read it?
With that in mind, here are some new intentions for 2020:
To be more authentic.
To learn to recognize backing away from, moving toward, and moving against.
To stop being so hard on myself. (I beat myself up far more than I ever realized.)
To get this body I inhabit back into a more workable and functional shape. Yes, I’ve gone back to swimming, martial activities, and drinking green tea. Just learning how to be good to myself again.
I wish you all a happy new year, with a bumper crop of love and happiness.
John Wiens, Conductor 