Change No One But Yourself

Well, we've had Christmas and we're in that lull between then and Hogmanay, or New Year's Eve as most people here in Oz call it.

For the first time in ages I'm having holidays between the two celebration days, and its lovely. Usually when I have holidays I'm either traveling or in a show (and sometimes both). This time its just lovely to have days to do nothing, or do something if you feel like it. So far the house has suffered my extra energy and some massive tidying up and clearing out has been happening. Lots more needs to happen but its a start.

We resisted the manic aspect of Christmas and chose to have a quieter day of our own design. Funnily enough we managed to see most of both of our families between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, and in a much more satisfying one to one way than the usual wild-eyed panic way that often happens on the big day.

I've managed to find time to sit and stare, which is one of the most recuperatve exercises ever, I've finished a book I've had for ages (reading it, not writing it), written some standup for February, juggled the Teenager's Maccas work schedule chauffeuring requirements, drunk some lovely wine, eaten some great food and had plentiful time to hang out with my gorgeous husband.

New Year's Eve will be similarly and deliberately quiet with just a gentle thanks being felt for all the good things we have.

2011 is going to be an awesome year - I can feel it in my bones. With us Three Stuffed Mums just getting started, the learning curve is just getting steeper, but with two such excellent companions on the journey as Kate and Kehau its more like fun than work. Our backing tracks are almost complete thanks to Mike and we're practicing like crazy.

Its so difficult for women - especially women over 30 to see their lives reflected back in a positive way from the the media and that's the imbalance we want to help address.

Its ok be you, to enjoy your life and your age whatever that may be. If you're a mum, whatever you and your kid are going through, its probably pretty normal and a bunch of us have gone through it before.

If we can laugh about it, it ceases to hold power over us. If we can talk about it, maybe together we can solve it. Whatever it is that's bugging us, just getting together with a group of women to talk will unearth so much wisdom. The media and business world aren't too interested in that wisdom, but it's there for us and we just need to find our own ways to channel and distribute it. It used to be that there were grannies, mums,aunties and sisters about to create that support group but its not so prevalent now and so many women, especially new mums, can become isolated. And that's what Three Stuffed Mums is pretty much about. We live our lives, we bring up kids, we make mistakes, we learn from that and we have a laugh about it.

Anyway, we're heading towards the new year, so I'll just say this: I wish you the best of all that you wish for yourself in the coming year. To quote from someone else that I know;
"Keep close, spread love and change no one but yourself."

Happy New Year everyone.