Archive for December, 2009

I’m back from my secret mission! I went to France, where my Mum lives, to celebrate her 60th birthday. It was a big surprise and all very hush-hush – she didn’t have a clue until the very end, it was *brilliant*! (I love surprises.)

I’ve hardly been back 5 minutes and now we will be ushering in the new year in a few hours…

Someone asked me yesterday if I was going to make any New Year’s resolutions. I told her, after some thought, that I will probably resolve to be happier. (I know it’s a bit vague and very catch-all, but, you know – she put me on the spot a bit, in the nicest possible way I hasten to add.)  Ah yes, I haven’t posted my manifesto yet – I will soon; one of the elements in it is:

Growth is an ongoing daily experiment.

So this isn’t going to be a resolution made on January 1st and broken by Spring! I will be continuing to explore what makes us alive, and happy, what makes us sing and sparkle. Two other elements of my manifesto are:

Unleash your creativity – dance inside daily.

And:

Share the process.

So I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to all of you, gentle readers, for following this endeavour, for contributing to making 2009 what it has been, and here’s to a joyful, abundant, vibrant 2010 together!

I’m going off the radar for a while on a secret mission. Can’t say any more as yet, but I probably won’t be able to post closer to Christmas so here’s wishing you all a very merry sparkly festive season with laughter and joy (and time out to do exactly what you want too)! Love x Noreen

Ooh I’ve been pretty quiet in the past week. I’ve been doing a lot of pondering, and quite a bit of planning! I’ve also been meeting and connecting with many lovely people (old and new, old and young also).

I’ve been finalising a surprise, but much as I’m bursting with excitement and want to write about it (I’m the WORST person in the world for keeping surprises secret, I get so pleased with them!) I can’t yet. Just in case the person whose surprise it is is reading this. There, I’ve been suitably vague and I don’t think I’ve just given anything away. In a… while (even giving a timescale might be too much detail) I’ll share what’s been keeping me busy these past few days.

But apart from nearly bursting at the seams from sheer excitement every day, I’ve been involved in the Cardiff Happiness Group! We had our first meeting this week; it was a small get together, as many of the people really keen to join had various work/family/other prior commitments, but it was a good start. We each ended up with 3 action points to think of or do by the next one – and we *will* be held accountable, that’s the point! Mine are (in no particular order):

• to have a “house meeting” at some point with the other human I live with (also with the cats if they want to take part but I doubt we’ll get much cooperation out of them) and set up a cleaning rota; it’s funny because writing this now it feels like it’s not necessary any more, but on Monday it was weighing enough on my mind for it to come up as a discussion topic. So, I guess it’s still worth doing. To be honest it has come up before, and will probably come up again; this is me asking for help with keeping the house tidy and clean, without turning into a nag.
• to ensure I allocate one day a month (at least!) as my downtime in which to be creative, let my mind freewheel, and do stuff with my hands. This month it conveniently overlaps with point 3:
• to measure up the space in the bedroom where my clothes live (and breed, it seems), draw up the diagrams for fitted rails and shelves, and a list of materials needed. I am planning to do this in the week between Christmas and New Year, and will get help building it too (hmm, there’s a theme of *asking for help* going on here. Good!).

I’ll post updates on how I’m getting on with these. I’ve also been doing some pondering and have been putting together Noreen’s amazing life list, and a manifesto for beamazingtoday. It’s amazing (haha!) how much clarity I got from writing down what I’m about, what I believe in, and the values I live and work by. Watch this space – I will be sharing them soon. (Update – I have now! Follow the links above.)