Brand New Year!

I am very lucky today to have an extra day off of work to organize my home desk, take back some of Doug’s Christmas presents that didn’t fit, finish cleaning the house, and get myself emotionally ready for work in 2011.  Doug’s at the office and I have a list longer than usual to get cracking on!

I’ve been thinking lately about my New Year’s resolutions.  In the past, I’ve made a trunk-load of resolutions that barely make it out of the first week, and I start the year feeling like a bit of a failure.  A friend suggested a while back that I do what he does – he finds a word or a phrase (organically – it must “come” to him) that he wants his year to represent, and he sticks by it throughout the year.  I decided to try it, and in 2009, my word was “Adventure.”  That year I went rock climbing, sky diving, exploring Boston, London and Paris, and sang with a band.  2010’s phrase was “Settling In;” we moved to a new apartment and I got pregnant.  This year, the word that somehow got stuck in my head was “Growth.”  I think this is more a resolution than the other ones, but I think it encompasses all that I want this year to be.  I will grow physically with a baby inside me and I’ll do it a bit more healthfully than I have been as those Christmas cookies and cupcakes have been calling my name!  I want to grow (and feel I have a lot of room to grow) emotionally (by identifying when I need to count to ten or take a walk before flying off the handle), socially (I have to get a bit better at listening to my friends and letting them know I love them), spiritually (maybe this year we’ll find a church home!), intellectually (I have SEVEN baby books to read) and professionally (there’s always room for career-growth).  I will also become a mother and that’s a whole section of growth all to itself!

It’s a bit ambitious, but I’ve always been ambitious.  I don’t want – or even have time - to tackle each item every day, but I will try to be cognizant of my actions and seize the opportunities that arise.

I will pray for this year to be healthy and safe for myself, my family and all my friends.  I will also pray that when we all fall off our resolution wagons, we get right back on again without a second thought.

Let’s all take a firm hold on this unbridled hope that the new year provides, and use it to make ourselves better human beings.

You are all wonderful, enchanting, delicious people and I love you.