Everyone and their mother is talking about releasing before embracing the year to come. Being a bit of a mystic, I *love* this idea, and I love the process of sitting down to ‘harvest’ the year in a sense. I like to look over old posts, flip through my ever-growing collection of art journals and get a sense for what the year held for me. Instead of just pushing right on in to 2012, I want to stop, take a breath, unplug, and honour what this year brought me.

Being as authentic as I can means I must not only celebrate my triumphs, but poke around in my failures, too. Because, listen: nothing good ever happens without failures. Failures are the mossy rocks across the river between the shore of ‘maybe’ and the shore of ‘ta da!’. It’s been my experience that if you don’t fall in to the river of ‘uh oh’ a few times, you haven’t pushed yourself hard enough.

As much as I believe in the metrics of ease, I also believe in challenging myself to move outside my comfort zone. I believe in tackling things I might fail to accomplish. The experiences I have when I push myself a little harder than I think I can go are, bar none, the best, most growthful experiences I can have.

Last year I started Wild Precious. It was not just a step outside the box. It was the mother of all leaps, and the experience is one I wouldn’t give up for anything. There were times when things got hard. There were times when my social awkwardness got the better of me and I felt like throwing in the towel. There were times when I lost sight of the point and got caught up in ‘oohhh shiny’. There were times when I ran too far ahead, tripped, and fell flat on my face in a pile of doo doo.

Much learning happened.

You know what else happened? I found you. You found me. I fell in love. Over and over again. My art practice developed. I came out of hiding. I emerged. I slayed dragons. I planted seeds. I grew. I soared.

It has been completely gorgeous.

On December 22, 2011, I am hosting two a chat at 9 p.m. EST. These will take place in a video platform that allows those of you with webcams to come on and do a little show and tell or simply share what you are releasing for the year. Officially, this chat is for participants in Book of Days 2012 (which is free! 206 people have already signed up! You would be sooooo welcome to join us!) but I want to connect with all of you ~ anyone who has something to release. Anyone who wants to celebrate the year that’s passing. Anyone who want to smile and say “I did it.”

You can RSVP here for the 9 p.m. EST chat.

If you like, you can bring a collage or art journal spread that represents when you’re releasing or celebrating.

Mad Love & Glitter,

Effy

Have you heard about Lifebook? How about Book of Days? I’d love to see you in either place. xo