I had all kinds of brilliant ideas for thoughtful, carefully-crafted blog posts I wanted to write. And because the bar was so high, I never got around to writing them. Funny how that is, isn't it?

The truth is, every minute of my day could be put to eight different uses and I've been shortchanging myself when it comes to sleep. I've been learning all kinds of amazing things in my day job at the LDAY Centre for Learning, and one of the lessons that keeps coming back to me is that the best things we can do for our brain health, are the same things we are supposed to be doing for our body's health: hydrate, eat well, EXERCISE, and get sleep.

And yet, I never get around to it. Changing habits... is real work, too.

One small change I've made, and stuck to so far in these first six days of 2019, is to take daily stock of the things I'm grateful for. I've had some dark times in my life, and the past few months have been not the very worst, but heavy. So I'm making this small change, at least, to exercise my brain and remember to have gratitude, every day, for the many blessings I have in my life.

Another change I've made: I've been more disciplined about saying "no" to things. I turned down two gigs and resigned from a board. It was hard to write those emails because I'm so conditioned to saying yes, to be the one to step in to help make light the work. And some of the things I've said no to are even things I would enjoy. But I realize I need to set strong priorities.

And the priority right now is the show I am preparing for on March 7th. This is part of Jazz Yukon's Jazz in the Hall series, and the goal of the program is to push local musicians to do something that stretches their boundaries and their skills. I have decided to write all new original material for it. This is huge for me. I've never written on-command. I've never written this much material at one time. I've never written with one show in mind. And I've never written jazz-based material that actually says something important.

The past few years have made me feel so strongly about feminism, about self-awareness, about respectful conflict, about sexuality, about mindfulness, and about honest relationships. I want to weave these topics into this show. Storytelling, too.

This is huge for me. And I'm scared, to be honest. Because it FEELS huge. I have to remind myself of that old joke, "How do you eat an elephant?" "One bite at a time." And even if I don't eat the whole elephant... I'll at least have made progress. And grown in the process.

(This un-crafted post of mixed metaphors is brought to you by 12 pieces of Toffiffee.)