This week’s poem inspired by the Association for the appreciation of January shares ideas for everyday inspiration – especially in January.

Especially January

Everyday has its inspiration –
Waking early and going out for a walk, a run or watering pot plants on the rooftop
Trying to catch dawn some days, hearing birds wake, seeing bats settling upside down for a day’s rest
Passing by favorite places – shady corner in a park, a flower garden, an intricate fig-tree, where crows meet to argue, where new leaves are breaking free
Waking your skin with cold water at the end of a hot shower, pulling your hair to get blood to your brain
Watchful for moments to capture, to photograph, offer as poems, as stories or just to store as memories
Taking exercise as a reward – swimming underwater, walking amongst old trees, dancing to deafening music, jogging in slightly scary places
Cooking for people who love food and eating it with them
Exercising and stretching everyday
Inviting art into your life – visiting galleries and buying paintings, reading poems and brilliant books, reading old favorites again and again, listening to music that moves you
Spending earnings on experience with people you love and not bothering too much about stuff
Meditating on nothing – or on good things – lists of those who people your life, interesting places, rivers you’ve swam in, trees you’ve rested under
Being brave enough to push on, not stopping when your heart starts to pound
Celebrating every day and every months while it’s there –
Especially January

Dhaka 2016