January archive

New Year, New You

January 3, 2008

My favorite time of year is the beginning. Everything is possible, it seems so easy to erase all those vices and create new ones. It is a time to resolve to be different, and if you're lucky, motivated, and dedicated enough, those differences might become permanent changes to better yourself. It gives us a reason to look back at what we did right, and what we did wrong in the past year; where we went, what we accomplished, who we loved. And it gives us a chance to look into the future at what we hope to become, the endless opportunities that sometimes get lost in the wildness that makes up our lives.

Last year, I grew in more ways that I could have ever imagined. I feel more whole every day, and every day I realized that I will never be stagnant. My life, my body, my mind, my spirit, and my relationships will always be changing. I have grown in, with, and against those changes this past year. Spending time in Brazil has already changed me, but I think that I can't possibly realize all those changes at one time, and that I'll be experiencing things in many years that are a result of those few months.

I've never felt things as intensely, nor been as numb as I was in Brazil. I think for a time (about a month), I shut off my brain and heart and gave them a rest for a while. And then, when I turned them back on, I had learned all these things about what is and what isn't important.

Another defining part of this year came in reading a book. "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert has changed my world. I discovered that someone had written down, quite eloquently, exactly how I feel about God (or whatever you call it). Read it.

This year I've resolved to do a lot of things differently; they're changes that I need to make but have been lacking the motivation to do. So hopefully, this year I'll make it happen.

Happy new year!!