Happy New Year

The New Year has arrived and with it our desire to change ourselves.  The air is littered with resolutions about organization, exercise, weight loss, romance and parenting.  With determined faces and good intentions we declare that this year we will follow through.  Alas, most of us fall by the wayside usually by the first of February.  Good for us for looking at what we want to do, to be, to achieve. However, most of the time we decide everything has to be changed at once.  It is the "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" syndrome.

One thing, just one thing is all we really need to focus on if we are serious about change.  I stumbled across a great resource one night when I was surfing the web during a increasingly familiar bout of sleeplessness.  Christine Kane has a nifty, free little e-book to help people pick a word for the year.   The word is one that will challenge you, shape you, focus you during the year as you explore what it means in your life.  If you want to download it for yourself, the link is http://christinekane.com/blog/category/intention/word-of-the-year-intention/

I picked commitment for my word.  I need to commit to myself by doing things that foster health and growth.  At the top of the list is writing.  Somehow the process of putting thoughts, ideas and stories down on paper, or in this day and age, on the screen seems to release something in me.  I have friend who can tell by looking at me whether or not I have been writing.  Apparently, I look better and am much funnier when words start flowing.  Who knew?

I think all of us have something that our deepest self needs to do daily to keep us headed in the right direction with a modicum of joy.  A life line of sorts, which allows the life we are called to to keep flowing.  When we don't do whatever it is, life gets backed up, we get cranky and everything goes to hell in hand basket.  It really is simple.  Just do whatever your life line requires.  Do it daily.  Do it joyfully if you can. If not, do it and complain bitterly about it.  The results are the same.  Life gets better, not easier, just better.  Try it yourself and see what you think.

Happy New Year!