At the beginning of each new year, I choose two or three new things to turn my attention to for that year. Those words sound so ordinary for what really happens in this process. The year I chose wildflowers as something to turn my attention to for that year, not only did I find books on wildflowers in Texas–and Ireland, the country of my great-grandparents!–but I also found myself hiking in the desert mountains around Tucson after I had bought a little magnifying eye in a tiny leather pouch which hung on a string around my neck. What was I doing there? Looking at wildflowers, both with my eyes and with the little magnifier. Not by plan or design…but as a natural evolution of something as simple as saying I will pay attention to wildflowers this year. Another year one of my areas of focus was technology…and I found myself–again not by conscious planning–buying my first hand-held pda and transferring my calendar and address data base… something I had resistance to for years previously.

This last year one of the areas I chose was color. It is amazing what all I began to see in the world because I had decided to pay attention to color. I read the most marvelous book about the invention of the color mauve and how that invention affected x-rays, photography, fashion, and a host of other things. (In fact, the subtitle of the book contained the words: “The Color that Changed the World.” I also read a history of the color pallet which had wonderful lines like this in it:

The best way I’ve found of understanding this is to think not so much of something “being” a color but of it “doing” a color. The atoms in a ripe tomato are busy shivering–or dancing or singing; the metaphors can be as joyful as the colors they describe–in such a way that when white light falls on them absorb most of the blue and yellow light and they reject the red–meaning paradoxically that the “red” tomato is actually one that contains every wavelength except red.”
–Victoria Finlay writing in Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Hand carved color pencils from the Jewish Museum in Berlin

It would not be an over-statement for me to say that the idea of an object “doing” a color instead of “being” a color altered how I looked at the world permanently. And I thought I had chosen “color” because of the beauty!

I found myself buying a calendar called Colours at a design museum in London. When Jerele and I toured the Jewish Museum in Berlin, I could not pass up some wonderful thick, hand-carved color pencils which I keep in a cup on my bookshelf and look at every day while I’m working. An art book I saw mentioned in O Magazine called Wolf Kahn’s America: An Artist’s Travels jumped right out to me because of the beautiful colors, and I ordered the book immediately and often look at it during my quiet time in the mornings, being inspired by the serenity and peace of the beautiful paintings. I found that I was paying more attention to color when I planned a meal for friends: how about roasted cherry tomatoes along side the broccoli, and maybe some yellow lemon peel in the rice? It was if “color” were a way I was actually looking out at life…not just a “subject” I might be paying attention to.

	Colours, a calendar from a London design museum

Some of the most fun about all this is deciding what to choose. I’m never in a rush… I start thinking about what focus areas I’ll have for the new year usually in mid-December; and by the last week of the year I’m thinking about the possibilities a lot with so much joy. I have decided on two areas so far for 2004: photography and hospitality. In photography I’m going to pay attention to things like how to make photo albums using I-Photo on my Mac and also I’m going to pay attention to getting a few of my photos ready for a small exhibit by the end of the year. For hospitality, I don’t have a clue what is going to show up…the idea just keeps sticking up front in my mind, so I’m going to choose that area and see what happens. I’ll let you know next December! I will probably chose one more focus area for 2004 but I don’t know what that will be yet.

Wolf Kahn’s America: An Artist’s Travels

It’s so easy for me to get a rut, thinking about the same things, looking at the world in the same ways. I don’t want to do that. I want to stay awake, interested, learning, enjoying…and with so much variety, beauty, knowledge, pleasure in the world around us, how can anyone be bored?

By having three new focuses for 2004, I know I will be different next December 31. I’ll have had experiences, thoughts, dreams, adventures, conversations, ideas, and pleasures that I would not have had, had I not chosen to pay attention. I’m so excited!

And I wish the same for you. If you do something similar or decide to begin choosing an area or two for new focus in 2004, send me an email and let me know what you’ve chosen. And let me know from time to time during the year what you are experiencing!

Dr. Elizabeth Harper Neeld offers wisdom and practical insights to anyone whose life is in a time of transition, change, grief and loss of any kind. As an internationally recognized and accomplished consultant, and author of more than twenty books - including Tough Transitions and Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World - she is committed to work that helps lift the human spirit.