Much has been swirling in the ether lately. I’ve been doing alot of thinking on this past year – what worked for me? What didn’t? Where did all my good intentions go? What happened to the ideas I had? The creative endeavors I planned to undertake, to nurse from infancy into reality?

For a year in which, in theory, I had all the time in the world – one of my biggest regrets is that I spent very little of it doing what I actually wanted to do. I spent alot of time spinning my wheels, wondering why I just couldn’t seem to set a spark to anything new in my life. But like a fire, you’ve got to rake the ashes to give your new fuel room to breathe. Even the most inspired ideas, relationships, and dreams need room to stir – cut off the circulation, and even the freshest will go stale.

For most of my life, I’ve carried around a ton of rubbish – literally and figuratively. I’ve done an amazing amount of purging this year, in many areas of my life… but this week the laser beam of my focus will be centered on The Last (and Greatest) Purge of 2009. Because I’ve decided that, in order to bring new (and better!) things into my life, I first need to create some space. When my time, brainpower, and resources are consumed by things that don’t matter to me, there is nothing left to devote to the things that do. If my mental and emotional space is cluttered with useless knickknacks and meaningless frippery, when inspiration comes knocking, there just isn’t room enough to invite the muse in for a drink. So, if I don’t need it – if I don’t desperately crave it – if it doesn’t bring me joy or bliss or laughter or pay the goddamn bills – then it goes!

I’ll be holding a private ceremony to incinerate some of the detritus – including a box of depressing old poetry I’ve been lugging around for years (much of it written between the ages of 12-22), a hundred letters in which I am dumped by old boyfriends, and all of my journals from what I’ll kindly refer to as “The Dark Ages”. I’ll also be making a list of The Ten Things I Want More Of In 2010, as well as Ten Things Which I Will No Longer Do In 2010 (stay tuned – these posts will be coming soon).

So, what have you been holding on to that you should let go of? What sundry items (or ideas, or themes) would you toss into the burn barrel? And what will you hope to cultivate in it’s place? I would love to hear your thoughts.

*muchlove*