2015: A Gift to Be Treasured!

Happy New Year!

Eventually, I expect we will all be making (and hopefully keeping) some new year’s resolutions.  But for the moment, let’s just treasure the gift of the new year spread before us.  It is a chance to start over, to embrace the change that will come whether we want it or not.  Approach what lies ahead with hope, expectation and plenty of gratitude, and 2015 will become the treasured gift it appears to be at this moment.  ENJOY!

 (Card from the Gallery Collection, Prudent Publishing, USA)

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QUOTES ON THE NEW YEAR! 

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”   Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “New Year’s Day.  A fresh start.  A new chapter in life waiting to be written.  New questions to be asked, embraced and loved.  Answers to be discovered and then live in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand.  Only dreams give birth change.”   Sarah Ban Breathnach

“Your success and happiness lies in you.  Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”   Helen Keller

“And now we welcome the new year.  Full of things that have never been.”    Rainer Maria Rilke

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”    Benjamin Franklin

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”  Oprah Winfrey

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.'”  Alfred Lord Tennyson

Another Year Older: A Balancing Act

A couple years ago, I started posting my annual birthday goals on my blog.  The idea is if they are public, then it is more certain I will accomplish them.  Sort of virtual self-imposed peer pressure.  For the past several weeks, I have been reflecting on last year and planning for 2014. A long term problem was resolved last year, and I am still feeling energized and excited about the future as a result of that whole mess being over!

My goals last year were pretty basic, geared to helping me live a healthy, active, engaged life.  I am pleased to say that I met the goals throughout the year.  For most of them, you will need to take my word for my success.  I addressed my physical self by eating more salad and drinking more water.  I addressed my emotional self by connecting with friends and laughing at myself. For my spiritual self I took some treks into Nature, took more photos, and expressed gratitude more consistently.  Some of these actions also turned into blog posts. 

Finally, for my mental self, I wrote more and posted a bit more regularly on my blog.  One of the routes to meeting this writing/blogging goal was to challenge myself by completing Topics A-Z throughout the year—and I did.  Or at least I thought I did as I planned to implore you to admit it would be a challenge to write topics for such letters as K, Q and X.  But then I realized I never wrote about Topic K.  Oops.  I have about a week until the anniversary of posting Topic A, so I could still complete this task within a year.  If I get busy.   [Any ideas for Topic K?]

As I noted recently in Topic Y: A Brand New YEAR, for 2014 I am taking a little different approach to my plans for a happy, healthy, authentic new year.  This year, the main change is that I am choosing a word to use as my guiding light for all the activities I undertake and the surprise I stumble upon.  I thought about using Bold, Adventure, Risk.  But in the end, I settled on BALANCE.  As I charge into 2104, I want to make sure that all I do stays in balance, so I can maintain a healthy and happy self that addresses my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. 

Here are six areas in which I hope to practice balance over the next 12 months:

Spontaneity * * * * * * * * *Careful Planning

Risk * * * * * * * * * Security

Solitude * * * * * * * * *  Community

Work * * * * * * * * * Leisure

Reading * * * * * * * * * Writing

Contemplation * * * * * * * * * Action

As I work to bring balance to my life, I am committed to writing consistently for my blog. I love the friendship and responsiveness of this great blogging community and plan to stay engaged with these amazing people.  My postings will continue to explore similar topics as I have written about before:  Nature, Animals, Travel, Gratitude, Book/Media Reviews, and Education.  Of course, this list is not exhaustive.  But it gives me six areas to explore by the time I am 60.    

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I HOPE YOUR LIFE STAYS BALANCED TOO.

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“It’s all about the quality of life and finding a happy balance between work and friends and family.”   Philip Green

“A wise woman recognizes when her life is out of balance and summons the courage to act to correct it. She knows the meaning of true generosity.  Happiness is the reward for a life lived in harmony, with courage and grace.”   Suze Orman

“The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.”   Stephen Covey

“I always try to balance the light with the heavy—a few tears of human spirit in with the sequins and the fringes.”   Bette Midler

“Our lives are a mixture of different roles.  Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is.  For me, that balance is family, work, and service.”   Hillary Clinton

“Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving.”   Albert Einstein

“Moderation, the Golden Mean. . .  is the secret of wisdom and of happiness.  But it does not mean embracing an unadventurous mediocrity; rather it is an elaborate balancing act, a feat of intellectual skill demanding constant vigilance.  Its aim is a reconciliation of opposites.”   Robertson Davies

“If you are depressed you are living in the past.  If you are anxious you are living in the future.  If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”   Lao Tzu