"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." — ~Neale Donald Walsch

I borrowed this quote from a friend's blog. It is fitting for the time of year, a beginning of new year and a chance to look back, look ahead, but  most of all, live fully in each moment. 


I can apply this quote to my multiple comfort zones...mental, physical, social, spiritual. Some zones I am more acquainted with, I know exactly where my area of comfort is and what it feels like to step closer and closer to the edge, and then jump over the edge and see what comes next. In some areas of my life I have yet to really challenge myself and discover where my edge is.  It's funny how the parameters of a comfort zone can change...expand and retract at different times in my life. 


I want to get to know my comfort zones in the different areas of my life, examine what keeps me from venturing out of them, and finally to brave the unknown.


So much is going on in my life. Changes abound...some that I created or initiated, some that I did not.


 I am moving soon. Sad to leave my lil cottage in the country, but excited to see what new experiences await in a new space. It will be good to shed unnecessary belongings and create a new place for myself. The same is true for inner space as well. A new year and a new beginning, not for resolving to fix or change myself, because I am perfect just the way I am, but for a new start to living simply and simply living, taking each day for the gift that it is!


A change that I am initiating is the cutting of my hair. I am excited for a new look and the chance to donate my hair to Hairloss for Children. I am going to ask the stylist, once she sections it off in ponytails, if I can make the cuts.  I would like to keep a small gathered strand and then give some hair to the birds for their nests. The thought of my part of me being up in a tree holding delicate eggs makes me smile. 

to start this new year...

a poem. Hafiz is one of my favorite poets. This poem sums up what I reach for in this coming year...enjoy!

All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.

Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season

Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.

Make a new water-mark on your excitement

And love.

Like a blooming night flower,

Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness

And Giving

Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence

Lie beside an equator

In your heart.

Greet Yourself

In your thousand other forms

As you mount the hidden tide and travel

Back Home.

All the hemispheres in heaven 

Are sitting around a fire

Chatting

While stitching themselves together

Into the Great Circle inside of

You.

~Hafiz