New Year, New Blog, New Business, New Book!

2012 has been a wild year for mama Cleary.

After a painful first half of the year, so many cool things have happened for us in the second half and whilst it's been great travelling etc, life goes forwards, and we are looking ahead of us now rather than reminiscing. 2013 is calling and it feels good.

There have been lots of openings for me to do exciting things and as this new year beckons, I'm aware that I want to change some things in my work life, now I have more opportunity to really get my teeth into the dream jobs I have flirting with till now.

This year I will be spending more time concentrating on writing projects - articles for Juno and EOS, and my book, and less time on social media and other online activities.

I will be building a website, with Pete's help, to channel my passion for birth towards those who actively seek it. So there will no longer be any birth stuff here on FeetOnTheGroundHeadInTheClouds  as this will now be moved over to a new blog which will be attached to my Doula website.

With Daddy Cleary sharing the home edding with our children, I look forward to family times together with other home elders, and getting the kids out and about to more interesting clubs and independent activities. But on a personal and professional level, I will also be aiming to spend more of my week out and about than previously, away from the family, and would like the opportunity to get to know better the many wonderful Doulas I know around here in East Anglia and whom I always seem to be too busy meet up with on any regular basis. If we stay in this area, and don't move house in 2013, I may even set up a new hub for Doulas, Birthworkers and Healers if there is demand for it and enough interest for such an informal network. I would like to set up a group unlike any others that already exist, so ideas please if you are working in complimentary health and just want to network and gather here at my place - lets make it happen!

This year I may blog here much less than I do now, so those posts I do write, will be fewer and far-between!

Which kinds of posts would you like to read more of in 2013? Tell me, tell me, tell me!

I have big dreams for 2013, and after devoting myself so singularly to home and kids for the last few years, I plan to be more outward looking this year. In 2012 I have been so grateful for all the alternative forums and blogs and writers and mentors who are on my wavelength, and who have such interesting things to say and this year I want to spend more time having those chats face to face than online. I have gained so much strength from online champions in the birth field, this year I want to meet more of them in the flesh, make more time to know them personally! This includes many wonderful women locally to me who I don't see enough of in real life :-)

I have been yearning to have the kind of 'free time' that this year presents to me, and I plan to use it well, to be more productive and focused, to write from the heart, to doula from the heart, and to get better at both.

I have Pam England's 'Birthing from within' course awaiting me in April.

I have an opening as a back-up-doula in January and helping at my sisters birthing in February, both of which are very different kind of roles, and which I am looking forward to immensely.

And this year I will be exploring the world of bartering for payment. I like the idea that people can give one another more than money and be creative with payment. Not in some tax-avoiding way, but as a valid means of living in the 21st Century, in a world where money can often obscure the real value of things. There's something kind of juicy about trading and exchanging favours and homemade treats, hard work, time, love and energy!

So an exciting year ahead! We may move home this year, we may travel, but one thing is certain -

2013 is going to kick ass!!!!!!