New Year, New Goals

I have three goals for this year:

One--lose weight. Like no one's ever heard THAT goal at New Year's before. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how incredibly serious I am about this one. I'm not sure I'm passionate enough about it yet to make it a top priority. I'm already keeping up with my goals to be healthier and exercise more. I ran three 5Ks last year, posting my best time yet on the last one. I'm strong, just not slim. It's just that I feel like my improvement on my running is going to top itself off if I don't lose some weight to compensate. After all, I'm not getting any younger.

Two--improve my relationship with God. I've always been a thoughtful person, just not always a prayerful person. I want to teach myself to keep the lines of communication between myself and God more open, less about myself, more personal, like I'm talking to a loved, trusted, loving friend. That's how it ought to be, I think.

Three--write more. I've written very little since my breakdown, but I am experiencing a resurgence in creative energy. It's being used in a variety of ways, but there are times I feel an overabundance of that energy and just don't quite know what to do about. I don't really know HOW to write anymore, and I feel that I'm going to have to re-teach myself. I've decided to start by rereading all the books that got me the most motivated in the first place. I'll start with Kathleen Rountree's The Writer's Mentor. I found that book entirely by lucky chance (providence, perhaps) when I first started writing. It is truly inspirational.

Beyond that, I'm just not into putting undue pressure on myself. Life is good, laid back, casual, the things that need to get done are getting done, and if the rest doesn't, it's really no big deal. As they say, don't sweat the small stuff. I've learned that lesson the hard way. And if we learn that lesson well it helps us sweat the big stuff with greater ease. It's like walking through a forest. If all the forest has is great big trees, it's an easy stroll. But if we ALSO have to navigate around thousands of little shrubs and boulders and snake holes it makes our journey through the forest a great deal more troublesome, and greatly increases our chances of being thrown off course and getting lost.

So, may your forest floors be clear and smooth!