Happy New Year

There is something refreshing about new beginnings.  A fresh start.  A do-over.  A time to make plans, set goals, start over or begin again.  New Years is the great re-set button.  Didn't like the way somethings were going?  Do-over.  Tired of old habits?  Re-set.   Ready to make some changes?  Set a goal and have a fresh start.  Anything is possible right now.  We can be like children again and dream big, grand dreams filling it with our plans and wishes for the coming year.  

Van Gogh

The New Year is also a time to reflect and appreciate what we did enjoy and accomplish this past year.  We have so many blessing in our lives, yet why is it so hard to remember those?  Everyone is talking about all the negative that has happened this past year.  Very few are listing the great things in their past year.  Take a moment and think back over not the negative but the positive.  The birthday's, the weddings, the vacations, the lazy Sunday afternoons, that goofy family game night.  So your life is not perfect....nobody's is.  We ALL have problems, trials, things that we would rather not have had happen or had to do.  That my friend is life!  It's what it is all about.  And it provides such a wonderful balance and contrast to the good!!  It really makes us appreciate those lazy days, those fun times with friends, the reaching of a worked toward goal. 

It's good to have goals and dreams.  Don't get me wrong.  Life would get pretty boring if we kept stagnant and didn't change anything.  Tired of being tired?  Put on a few pounds?  Set a goal, start to exercise, change your eating habits.  It's a good thing.  Finances take a tumble this past year?  (who's didn't?)  Set a goal, make some changes, go back to school if you need to,  plan a budget.  It's a good thing.  

Life is an adventure!  Enjoy it.  Take the bad with the good and learn from it.  Try not to make the same mistakes again.  Learn compassion from it so that you can help lift others when they are struggling with something similar.  Try to have an attitude of gratitude about everything in your life.  It's hard sometimes to be positive...but remember what our mother's used to say:  "If you don't have something good to say...don't say anything at all!"  Just smile and think, "this too shall pass."  And it will.

One of my favorite movie lines comes from "Auntie Mame" with Rosalind Russell.  Make this your mantra this year!  

"Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!"