For many of us across the country and around the world, 2009 was a very, let’s just say, interesting year. I find myself from time to time wondering how I got to where I am right now, and shake my head at the strangeness of it all. If someone where to tell me a year ago that I would be house sitting at an estate in Mill Valley, California and working on turning the property into a spiritual retreat center, driving a 2002 Mercedes Benz, hiking through the redwoods of Marin County and writing for a guy with a foot fetish, I would have thought you had gone insane. But, oddly enough, this is what I am doing and it is a far cry from living in the middle of Manhattan in an elevator building and working as a stylist on photo shoots. Complete polar opposites. I have a funny feeling that I am not the only person who has radically changed their lifestyle because of the recession or any other number of strange events that have occurred this year. I feel like I have been flipped over like a pancake, and although change is good, it can also be downright scary. The comforts of our previous life are gone and our new life is still forming. We have no road map to point us in the right direction and our future can at times be crystal clear, but most of the time is foggy and uncertain. What we have come to accept as normal is now thrown into question and it seems, at least for me, that I live in a world of paradox. Just the other night I was sitting out on the balcony with a friend of mine watching a glorious full moon rise up over the San Francisco Bay, and I was awestruck at just how powerful and strong the light was that was emanating from this amazing source. My friend joked and said, “I think I’m getting a moonburn.” I laughed wholeheartedly at the idea of being scorched by the moon instead of the sun. Kind of like my battle with opposite extremes, you just can’t be certain about much these days. Just when you think you got it all figured out, life takes a new turn and you are thrown in a whole new direction. But instead of fighting this tendency and running back to my comfortable existence, I am deciding to take on this challenging year and embrace that which is uncertain, paradoxical and downright surprising. We all get burned sometimes, by our bosses, our parents, our friends, by life, but the key is to keep going despite the sting and appreciate how beautiful life can be, turmoils and all. And once you realize that the things we think will hurt us are really just beautiful gifts from the universe, you can settle back in your chair and enjoy the show, with no fear of being burned… at least until the sun comes up.
