letting go in 2012

I was supposed to start the new year recovering from a major operation. In fact the first few months of 2012 were meant to be about recovery. But the universe - and Box Hill Hospital had other ideas! At the eleventh hour, in pre-op with a local aneathestic administered, a hospital bed wasn't available for me and my surgery was cancelled.

So I started 2012 in an unplanned way – plans that I had made in mid-Dec were cancelled, and I'm making things up as I go along while I wait for a new surgery date – February, March, who knows? ... Its in the lap of the Gods and the booking clerk at Box Hill. There seems little point in making any firm plans, such as applying for markets like Finders Keepers as I could well be in post surgery recovery mode by the time the market rolls round in March.

I'm taking each day as it comes, or rather as I find it. Days at the studio making the most of the holiday tourist season. Evening walks on the beach with Jack and Drew. Trying to eat healthy. Processing the mountain of vintage books we have collected. Thinking about future ranges and products. Enjoying the summer weather.

As I write this I'm realising that this is a lesson I have to learn: To let go. Its been a common theme in my blog posts over the past four years – my struggle to let go and the opportunities life has sent me so I can learn this lesson. I had one week's notice for my surgery date on 14 December – everything I had planned went out the window as I mentally and emotionally prepared myself for surgery. Then, just minutes from the operating theatre my surgery was cancelled, and I found myself having to let go again.

I've had another "let go" lesson in late 2011. After almost a year of indecision about the greenolive vs vintage prints brand/identity/website, the decision was made for me. Our greenolive domain name had lapsed and before we renewed it someone else snapped it up. So greenolive is no longer: no email address, no website, no identity. So vintage prints it is.

My only plan for 2012 is to have the surgery - Box Hill Hospital willing – to recover quickly and to just go with the flow and let go. Anything else is a welcome surprise and a nice bonus.