Restart, Reboot :)

I love New Year's. As much as anyone who might kneel in gratitude over a much-needed second chance and clean slate.

But I think I'm finally done with mental lists of resolutions I always just forget about three months in.

Instead, I'm looking forward to drawing and visualizing, although perhaps today not with my usual drawing partners, most of whom live elsewhere. Maya lives in Singapore but is in New Zealand for the holidays; Apol, Ms Provenciana, lives in the south of France with her hubby and little one-year-old tornado also known as Lilou. Will try to get a hold of Tony, who might be busy with holiday DJ duties.

Today I have my large sketchbook and colored pens and will plan to draw with R. I've never drawn with him, and sharing a first session with someone is always the most thrilling. You never know what people will draw, what they will reveal about themselves, or what they will choose to share about their aspirations, and am looking forward to being surprised.

As for myself I'm going to try to think harder about my drawing and see what should change. For the past several years, since Maya, Apol and I started this drawing tradition (at a corner table in 90 Proof along Emerald Avenue in Ortigas), I've been drawing the same elements representing beachside bliss, bounty in all areas of life, lots of travel, and chart-busting books to my name. There is also of course the figure of the beloved: years ago, the stick figure lounged on a beach chair with the name of his company stuck to his head (so the universe can make no mistake about it); then he started appearing on the balcony of my beach house. Let's see where he ends up in this year.

We've gotten much of what we've imagined we would receive, and for that I am truly grateful to the winking humor and the outright generosity of the universe. Today I am ready for more. Bring it, 2011!