Wishing you the happiest...

I decided to postpone Part Two of the shopping post for one more week, because who am I to just breeze past a New Year's Day blog post without waxing poetic about life and time and the year ahead?  And truly - one of my goals this year is to do a little less shopping, so I'd hate to set the wrong precedent here on January 1st!

I have found that looking back has never done me too many favors, so let's focus straight ahead here for a minute.  I have a mental list of resolutions that has been brewing in my mind this week.  However, as I start to tick through them I become painfully aware that most of them are terribly cliche, so on second thought, maybe we should just skip that formality this year. 

I think it's fair to say that we could all use a fresh start every once in awhile.  A clean slate with an acceptable reason to call the past the past and do something new is a rarity.  I'm thankful for the big to-do about New Year's because it's really a much needed reprieve.  How often, as adults, do we get the opportunity to start over with no strings attached?  New Year's lets us off the hook.  Maybe we didn't lose that weight last year - but hey - all is forgiven - maybe this will be the year.  Maybe life didn't bring all that we hoped, maybe opportunities were missed, or maybe disappointments hit hard and we never quite recovered.  The beauty of the New Year is lovingly packing those things away in the 2009 box and placing it neatly in the top of the closet.  We label it "the past" and give ourselves the chance and the hope of getting it right this next time.  I for one, don't extend myself that kind of grace very often, do you?

So maybe I shouldn't knock my list of cliched resolutions quite so hard.  I like the promise of the New Year and the reminder that anything is possible, however arbitrary the reason for feeling that way.  I came across a quote today that I think sums up exactly what's on my mind...

"The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes."  G.K. Chesterton

I hope you find something new in yourself this year that knocks your little socks off.  I'll let you in on a secret...I'm hoping the same for me too.