Happy New Year, Wondrous Patrons!

Today, I am thrilled with this communal fiction of a new year based on the Gregorian Calendar! It's got me all excited about ideas and possibilities! Simultaneously, it freaks me out with the harsh realities we are individually and collectively experiencing. Yikes!

The concept of New Year is a trip!

The beginning of a year is celebrated across our planet throughout all the seasons, not just on January 1st. And, of course, every moment holds the possibility of beginning anew. Our culture's pressures and expectations of productivity, goals, and resolutions are buzzing about, intent on laughing in our faces as we head to the statistical reality of failure in a few...months, weeks, days, minutes?

A New Year can be stressful!

It doesn't have to be.

May I remind you, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING! (besides finding ways to survive under the ravaging demands of late-stage capitalism! Whee!!!) Goals, schmoals! Our being will always be more important than our doing, PERIOD! And I believe if our doing comes from our being, we will experience a Life we might recognize as wholly, complicatedly, wonderfully ours.

But, if you want to get on the "resolution" struggle bus, do it!

And...

I Invite you to approach any behavior changes with dynamically firm gentleness. Beating the crap out of ourselves doesn't work, or our Lives would already be different.

Dynamic:

Knowing that flexibility is vital. New information means changing strategies when needed.
Infusing play into practice. If it feels like drudgery it is probably doomed to failure.
Honoring Time as we move with the flow of Change. Patience is a necessary ingredient for positive transformation.
Understanding and respecting our capacities and levels of energy. Pushing through inertia is sometimes important, but forcing ourselves into mental, emotional, or physical exhaustion is not a good look.

Firm:

Bringing ourselves repeatedly back to what we are choosing to shift.
Taking the reins to direct our focus.
Being persistent in Creating methods of remembrance as new habits and neural pathways are formed.

Gentle:

Allowing space for the exquisitely human tendency to return to familiarity, comfort, denial, and pleasure without denigrating our efforts or ourselves.
Cultivating tenderness and Curiosity towards our fallibilities.
Treating ourselves as a dear beloved.

The idea of small things being done consistently over Time is our best friend! Dynamically firm gentleness can assist us in moving towards alignment with who we are and who we desire to become. Harshing ourselves isn't an effective strategy over the long haul of Change, and honestly, it just sucks! There's plenty of harshness in the world.

May we beautifully fail and succeed in the New Year!

Year Three!

It's wild to be at the beginning of year three on Patreon! As of today, I have Experimented and Offered over 505 Creations on this platform since Winter Solstice 2020!

Wow!

WOW!

This amount of Creativity seems redonk to me, but it's true! I have been a prolific bear cub over the past two years and now have a large body of work as a Content Creator person/urson. The original idea of helping myself and others through our first Covid Winter has become a vehicle for my Life's work and a remarkable opportunity to live my 5 Core Values.

I have many ideas and projects for 2023 that are simmering. January's primary focus will be fleshing them out. The main difference is that the structure moving forward will be an Invitation to Experiment, Explore and Create inspired by my Core Values: Connection, Courage, Compassion, Curiosity, and Creativity, but may or may not involve a weekly theme. I love the weekly theme structure, and I need to find a different container.

My writing, photos, and wee UBR films will be evolving. I'm so excited about what's to come! And I'll continue posting Invitations: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Your feedback, comments, and suggestions are always appreciated.

It will be a wondrous romp!

I offer gratitude to you, dear Patrons, all of you that wonderfully care about my weird-ass journey. The tangible support you give makes it possible to experience the luxury of Time necessary for incubating creative ways to human, to heal. Your generosity has changed my Life, and sharing what I discover is my desire.

I want people to Love themselves and Life more, and you help bring this medicine to our world. Thank you.

May your experiences in the next 12 months be rich, meaningful, and challenging in the best ways!

Love and Love,

Uncle Bear

We do this thing together.

(Just the one dear, just the one. 😉)