Reflecting on 2011

Written 26 & 27 Dec. 2011

This is a topic that will probably take a few sessions to complete, but I’ll make a start tonight. I’m using my diaries to help me recall the events of the past year, although there are certain ones that are permanently etched on my brain.

This was a busy year, a year of many firsts for me, a year which, surprisingly, I survived without a permanent job – in fact, one of the most interesting and exciting years of my life. It was a year in which I pushed myself way beyond my former limits, in many aspects of my life, as well as a year of clarity and closure.

2011 has been a year in which I’ve re-learnt the value of friendship, and have come face to face with such love and magnanimity, that I have often been rendered speechless. When it mattered most, my family and true friends were there for me, supportive and caring, never questioning my judgement, nor doubting my integrity.

But the most significant thing for me by far, about 2011, was that I finally learnt what it meant to live my truth. This was the year I regained my freedom.

So, here goes....

1st quarter, January – March

January:
1. Played New Year’s Eve gig at Myoga Restaurant, in the Vineyard Hotel, with guitarist, Rudi Byrnes. The perfect way to see in the new year!
2. Continued interviewing District 6 land claimants – very interesting contract I was involved in since Nov 2010.
3. Recorded a demo of one of my original songs, “I’m So Happy Today”, at Ghalik Jacobs’s Little River Studio, with Wayne Bosch (guitar) and Tony Paco (percussion).
4. Uploaded the song onto the internet (www.soundcloud.com) two days later.
5. Demo played on regional radio a few days later and on national radio about two weeks later.
6. Spoke at a high school choir camp about my life as a singer-songwriter.
7. Started walking regularly with my best friend, Tracy.
8. Carried on swimming regularly at gym – max. at one visit, 30 lengths.

February:
1. Started sessions with life coach, Inez Woods. Wow!
2. Started advertising guitar lessons.
3. Had my Jetta’s engine overhauled.
4. Facilitated two discussion groups for a gender activist organisation.
5. Started a 14-week solo gig at Don Pedro’s, in Woodstock.
6. Did lots of walking, no swimming.

March:
1. Started teaching guitar lessons – by the end of the month, I had four students.
2. More work on the D6 project – compiling and analyzing data.
3. Created publicity pack to market the duo.
4. Did some editing work for a retail company.
5. By the end of the month, I had two weekly restaurant gigs – one solo, one duo (at Myoga, with Wayne).
6. Fitness level increased – max. at one visit, 60 lengths. :-)********************************************************************************

2nd quarter, April – June

April:
1. Extra 4 guitar students – total, 8.
2. From mid-April, a 6-week duo gig with Wayne at Doppio Zero, in Claremont = three weekly gigs!
3. Set up a routine of advertising weekly gigs in newspapers, on radio, Facebook, Gumtree, my blog, as well as my growing e-mail network.
4. Started focusing on my original music at solo gig – good response.
5. Carried on walking with Tracy.
6. Wrote a song (samba): “What’s What?”
7. Put music to a Diana Ferrus poem: “Have I Lost You?”

May:
1. My mom turned 81!
2. Local elections – 18 May declared a public holiday for this year.
3. By end of May, no more weekly gigs.
4. Almost no exercise this month. :-(

June:
1. Redesigned resumé - started marketing myself as a soloist.
2. Designed double-sided business card to reflect my two passions: Music & Words.
3. Applied for short contract, UWC job – Practice Teaching Supervisor - successful.
4. Eric Alan interviewed my mom and me on ‘The Taxi’, a new internet radio station.
5. Wrote a song (ballad): “Today I Opened My Eyes”.
6. Started planning concert of originals.
7. Very little exercise. :-(

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3rd quarter, July – September

July:
1. Got my first batch of professionally-made, Trudy-only business cards! (Before = duo.)
2. Spoke at a women’s breakfast (organised by Inez Woods) about my journey towards living my truth. Demo CDs for all.
3. Booked the Nassau Hall for my concert, set date for Friday 7 October, intending to record concert as live debut CD.
4. Secured the band for the concert: Wayne Bosch, Hilton Schilder, Errol Dyers, Charles Lazar, Tony Paco. (Or so I thought!)
5. Acquired 12 new guitar students. 2 of previous lot had dropped out. Total 18.
6. A little more exercise than last two months.

August:
1. Started contract job with UWC, supervising practice teaching B. Ed students.
2. Started tutoring a little boy – reading skills.
3. Did ‘Blisters for Bread’ Charity Walk (5km, with Mom and Tracy).
4. Started rehearsing for October concert.
5. Exercise: Not much.


September:
1. Three new guitar students, total 21.
2. Lots of rehearsing for concert.
3. I turned 50!
4. My Yahoo e-mail address hacked into – lost 11 yrs of contacts and e-mails I’d saved!
5. Changed concert to pre-recording, as particular sound engineer not available on 7 October.
6. Two musicians in concert band dropped out – secured new bassist for concert: Alistair Andrews! Hilton offered to do percussion.
7. Secured MC for concert: Derek Ronnie.
8. Had a crystal chakra alignment.
9. Exercise: Nothing!

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4th quarter: October – December

October:
1. Gregory Franz agreed to take photos at the concert.
2. Interviewed on Bush Radio; dj played two of my original songs: I’m So Happy Today and Lucy.
3. Fri 7 October - my concert of my original songs, with exciting backing band: Wayne, Errol, Hilton and Alistair! Wonderful, appreciative audience of +- 100 gave us a standing ovation!
4. UWC job came to an end – submitted marks for my 12 students.
5. Started 6-week substitute lecturing post at College of Cape Town, City Campus. Lovely experience. Met really cool people.
6. 2 new guitar students, total = 23.
7. Exercise: Nothing!

November:
1. Lectured at CCT for the entire month. Loved every day there.
2. My daughter turned 13!
3. My cellphone broke – lost years of contact numbers. Another forced new beginning.
4. Most of my guitar students stopped lessons towards the end of the month.
5. Went back to gym after 8 months – swam 20 lengths, restarting the journey.
6. Spoke at another women’s breakfast organized by Inez Woods – the theme was “Eat, Pray, Love”, and I was assigned “Love”!!
December:
1. Finished up at CCT on 6 Dec.
2. Mom treated me to “Phantom of the Opera”, at Artscape – wow!
3. Children finished up at school, excited to have passed to their next grades.
4. My son turned 17!
5. Christmas lunch at a cousin’s house – huge family gathering – then afternoon tea at another cousin’s …….a very satisfying, stress-free day!
6. Up to the 27th, I had done quite a lot of walking and swimming. Back in the groove of life.

I totalled all the walking Tracy and I had done this year, and it came to 248km – I am SO proud of that! This was one of the many things this year that had started as a thought and blossomed into action - proof that anything is possible. For December alone, I have swum 126 lengths. Now, that may not be much by someone else’s standards, but by mine, that’s pretty good! Tomorrow I’ll be back in the pool, and this time I’m aiming for 40 lengths. I should be back to 60 by the end of January.

So what’s the big deal? Why go on and on? What’s all the record keeping about? This stuff is important to me, because I’m breaking an old habit of playing down my achievements and focusing on my failures. It’s part of how many of us were raised, to regard acknowledging our successes as arrogant. I believe that, if you keep looking at your failures, you’ll keep failing. I live my life joyfully and intensely. There’s a whole lot that’s not where it should be, and a whole lot of serious stuff that needs my attention, but I would be missing the point - missing the lessons life keeps teaching me - if I disregarded the things that have gone well in 2011.

If I say I believe that “nothing succeeds like success”, then I have to look back at my many ventures and appreciate that there were indeed successes along the way. In Mind Power, you’re encouraged to think of past successes, build up an energy/thought vibration of success, and to let successful thoughts flood your mind, so that you predispose yourself to even more of the same.

I prayed for so many changes this year, and I can honestly say some of the most important ones were granted. I enter 2012 with a heart bursting with excitement and hope, a soul celebrating freedom, and a head full of ideas for the year ahead.

As I conclude this post, there are still a few days left of December, in which a lot could happen. I don’t have a New Year’s Eve gig yet, but who knows…..?

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Some thoughts on 2012
One of my main focal areas for 2012 will be generating an income (doing something I love) that will make me independent again and enable me to sort out the financial complications that arose in 2011. I will also intensify my focus on “a healthy mind in a healthy body”, both for myself and as an example to my children (because children learn from what we do, not what we say!). I’ll be flying solo for as long as it feels right. After that, I trust that, just like with the energy shifts I experienced in 2011, the year ahead will be characterized by more of the same, i.e. the perfect timing of the universe’s intervention in my life. But, more about this in another blog post. ********************************************************************************