Finally, some time to write this blog about 2023.
It has been a great year, full of ups and downs. On the up, it is great to have seen my latest book been published. My encounters with ritual and systems thinking, yielding valuable insights that I hope will inspire others.
I found a great creative writing group, in which I have felt at home. At times though it has been my own fear of not fitting in that has stopped me from being fully present there. But overall, this group has helped me value my feelings and ways of expressing them. Together with my other well being groups, I have become more accepting of who I am, something that seems to becoming difficult (or easy?) as years go by. I have been giving myself permission to be more artistry and poetic. Coming from an engineering background, and also an anxious background, it is a daily permission I need to give to myself. No need to replay tapes about the past too much, specially my old anxious reactions. There is always choice. Difficult to believe, more difficult to put in practice! I will try not to control the outcome of what I say or do.
The children are growing up. Accepting that they are becoming independent, and unique persons on their own has also been a challenge. They keep surprising me. Sometimes I wonder if or how I am one of the people who see them grow, guiding them whenever possible. Life gives us unexpected turns and things. Perfectionist by heart, permission accepted not without fear. Creativity can come to the rescue of souls like mine. It won't do the homework for me of having to accept things as they are, but could help me make the best of such things.
Our world is in wars. They look unjust, unfair, as if ruled by pernicious Gods. We are not in ancient Greek times anymore. We are supposed to be rational and just, after all these years since. But we still act as if we want myths to be re-lived. But hey, we are also more creative, and our creativity is also fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI). Possibly the most searched and discussed topic nowadays. Again, whether we make reasonable or good use of it is up to us.
My book on ritual and systems thinking (again it is me still excited about it!) has helped me to understand a bit more how we need ritual, its features of opaqueness and redundancy, its uncertainty of outcome, how we can use ritual to better feel at home in the face of uncertainties, and how we do not need to rationalise them too much (even if there are now claims about the well-being benefits of ritual). We are part of societies that perpetuate certain rituals. And we are not to take ourselves too seriously. Not even in the face of this or other pandemics. We can be resilient, we just need to unload unnecessary fears I think.
The year 2024 comes in a few days. A friend has just told me how uncertain it looks. Yes it does. I can only wish for one thing: Let us try to just be here and now. Hope is still there, it has been. Maybe this is what our end of year with a very important birth is about.
