2012 has dawned and I find myself feeling a measure of peace and excitement.

New challenges are coming, and with those challenges bring change. I’d been feeling a tad moody earlier in the week; Bayou was gone from 12/23 till 12/31. The house felt empty, and I couldn’t sleep. Earlier I was texting with a friend in San Diego, because she’d posted this great quote:

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another.

Reading that hit home, and really brought to the surface why I was feeling unease. In taking this new job, I’m leaving so much of my emotional support. My team is made up of people I socialize with, people I trust and even love. My job has been so integrally part of my identity; coupled with that love, I’m leaving behind a lot. No wonder I was feeling off-kilter. Realizing the ‘why’ helped.

Because Bayou was away for Christmas, we had our celebration/gift exchange New Year’s Eve. It was fun to see how on the same page we were. We had said, prior to her trip, that experiences were more important than things. With that in mind, we worked on providing exactly that. The final tally of fun:

• Several books on subjects which interest us- gardening, Italian cooking, and photography. Not experiences, I know, but tools to facilitate them.
• A weekend trip to Carson, WA to some cabins and wineries. Yay wine!
• Two tickets to whale watch, which we’ve not done together.
• An any-time jaunt to nearby Woodinville, also a wine Mecca. Yay wine x2!
• Again, this is a tool, but it’s fun- a Holga camera to explore creative visual pursuits.
• I pre-ordered Bayou a Lytro camera that will be here in the late winter/early spring. Yay visual art x2!
• A lifetime membership, including access to the entire DVD library in perpetuity, at Guitarjamz, a fantastic self-teaching site.
• And here’s where Bayou totally wins major surprise and ‘wow’ points. Through the wonders of Facebook, she managed to snag 10 private guitar and songwriting lessons with none other than Camille Bloom, local indie legend. Further making this gift awesome, she revealed it to me with a super cute presentation on her iPad.
• Lastly, but not least, we’re returning to Belize in May. I think I may have won some points for that, hehe.

So 2012 is shaping up to be a good year for new experiences. Including the list above, Bayou has at least one biz trip, I’ve got my new job, and we’ll be working on all of the above. It feels great to have creative projects moving and forming again. It’s been too long.