Slovak cover of Graceling ————>

So, one of my favorite tasks this time of year is The Changing of the Daily Planner (henceforth, ∆DP). ∆DP involves putting last year’s and this year’s planners side by side; going through last year’s; and writing into this year’s, in ink of significant colors, the things that happen every year (birthdays, bill-paying days, tax-paying days, etc.). It also involves writing into this year’s planner all the plans for 2010 that I’ve already made.

I LOVE THIS TASK. This is partly because my daily planner is the Women Artists Datebook, which contains quotes at the bottom of every page, artwork every few pages, and poems here and there. While moving from the old planner to the new one, I get to review last year’s favorite quotes and poems and peek ahead to this year’s.

Today I’m going to share some of the joy of ∆DP 2010. :o)

A few favorite quotes from the old year:

… the job of the artist is not to resolve or beautify, but to hold complexities, to see and make clear. – Toi Derricotte

The facts are always less than what really happened. – Nadine Gordimer

Our parents had us so convinced we were precious that by the time I found out I was nothing, it was already too late — I knew I was something. – Florynce Kennedy

I have great believe in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift. – Septima Clark

A favorite poem from the new year:

The Rapture

is what occurs to me, watching you
lead them towards the gondola,

the prospect of a few thin cables
dangling you like a box of kittens,

our children looking down,
a thousand feet above reliable earth,

laughing, noses mauling the icy glass,
little breath clouds that blur the view.

And when at last you are lifted
into the mountain’s buried side

to where my eyes can no longer touch you,
I will sample the small dark thought

of never seeing you again,
in which case I beg to be taken — extracted,

suddenly, preternaturally zapped away,
as if I were never here, and loved that much.

-Michelle Bitting

Feel free to share a quote, a poem, or a New Year’s routine in the comments ^_^.