I've been watching quietly as many of my friends and associates begin 2009 with a renewed burst of activity, a fresh set of goals and objectives, even the determination to find that perfect job (which shows some optimism in itself). It's always a good time for reflection, at the gate of the year, but my intentions are turning in rather the opposite direction.
I think that in 2009 I will try to do less. Less of everything. Not just eating, which is my normal start to the year. I'm not going to try to earn more, exercise more, do more writing projects, carve out a bigger niche at the office, have more holidays or cram more into my schedule by organising my time better. I'm aiming for less of all of these.
Or perhaps I'm aiming for more silence, more stillness and more tranquillity. More time set aside for doing unstructured activity. I read over Christmas that Salvador Dali had an interesting take on stillness and creativity. After lunch, he would take a nap with a teaspoon wedged under his elbow. When the teaspoon clattered onto the tiled floor and the noise woke him up, he would paint whatever had been in his imagination at the time. This might explain some of the forms and shapes he came up with!
But the approach has a certain sacredness about it, as though the hinterland between waking and sleeping is truly holy ground, that should be attended upon, listened to and worked out into some kind of meaning for the waking hours. Dali didn't strive to get his imagination going, he just let it happen. He got himself out of the way for whatever was coming through.
So if I have a New Year resolution, that's it. Less doing and more being. More naps, more marinating, more walks. Less media, more meditations.