My 2008 ended with a day of loud music and creative rage followed by a night of champagne, spaghetti bolognese and conversation with Nicola about the gifts and the bruises of the old year, and our fears and hopes for the new. And, especially, what we want. Because, as Nicola said last night, talent and hard work and good ideas and luck are not enough without the wanting. And of course in wanting out loud, we make ourselves most vulnerable to bruises and gifts.
My 2009 begins with a gift. Karina has made a vid for my essay Surrender. How lucky I feel, in the gift and the friendship of the giver.
I hope 2009 brings you gifts that make you feel lucky, that make you proud of your choices and hard work, that make you glad you stuck it out for this thing and were brave enough to walk away from that one. I hope that you get your chance to walk out on the high wire and that no matter what happens, you have the fierce joy of finding yourself what you have always wanted to be.
What we want is what we are. What we do is who we are. I hope that in 2009 the wanting and the doing will be brilliant for you.