New Day, New Year, New Decade, Old You, New You…the new year is often filled with anticipation of change. How will this year be different, do we really want it to be so? For me writing haiku moves me gently into noticing and observing in new ways…January 1 is the perfect time for me to challenge myself in this way. For the past several years I have hosted a Haiku Challenge as a way to jump start mindfulness in the new year. I consider haiku morsels of mindfulness…delicious in their simplicity and awareness of the present moment. You do not need to consider yourself a poet to create haiku…and you don’t even need to follow the formula you probably learned in elementary school — three lines made up of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. Modern haiku do not need the formal structure that we are familiar with, but certainly can be written in this pattern. They do need to be written in the present tense as an observation that evokes awareness, thought or emotion. I love the description I once read…”a haiku is a poem that can be said in one breath”.
Come play in the haiku sandbox this January with like-minded folks! I will be writing one haiku a day for the month of January and posting them on my blog (StressResources.com/blog) Facebook (StressResources) Twitter (@pamressler) and Instagram (@StressResources) using the hashtags #HaikuChallenge20. Feel free to join in each day or only occasionally…be sure to share the hashtag #HaikuChallenge20 with friends…and let’s get writing!
Here is today’s first haiku of the new year #haikuchallenge20
First day of new year
letting go while holding on
push, pull of old, new