Thoughts on the New Year

(Painting by Kumi Rajagopal)


I always find myself waxing nostalgic on New Years Eve. As I replace my old calendar with the new, I look over each month and reminisce. What a year it has been. A year of disappointments and joys. A year of change and yet no change. A year of stress in some areas and peace in others. A year of sickness and health. Of love and of loss. Of hardship and of carefree days. I am sure the same can be said of your year as well.

I like to review the old year on New Year's Eve. What worked? What didn't? What would we have liked to have done differently? What would we do the same? Which leads to the questions: What would I like to accomplish in the next year? What do I want my life to look like? What do I want to let slip away? What do I want to change?

This year I am not making a list of things I want to stop doing. I am making a mental list of the things I would like to start doing. I find it much more appealing to focus on the positive.

This year I plan to:

**Study yoga more in depth. In fact, I plan to practice yoga every day this month as a jump start. I want to study the philosophy of yoga. The yamas and niyamas. All the limbs of yoga. And on that note, does anyone have any book suggestions to help me on my way?

**Be more creative. Although it is true that in the last 2 and 1/2 years I have never been without some sort of craft project on the go, I would like to become creative in other ways. Cooking, drawing, playing piano. Things like that.

**Pay more attention to healthy eating and cooking. Almost all of our meals are homemade already but I would like to get my carnivore husband and daughter eating more vegetarian meals. More fresh living foods.

**Grow my sense of gratitude and appreciation...for my family, my neighbors, my home, my town, my country.

**Go outside more. Every day. Find something new to appreciate and wonder at. Spend time communing with the natural world.

**Develop a spiritual connection to something greater than myself.

**Be fully present in whatever it is that I am doing, whether it is watching my little one play, ironing clothes or filling bird feeders.

**Live simply. Love freely. Laugh often.

And so on this first day of the new year I wish for you enough. Enough work to keep you busy. Enough joy to keep you smiling. Enough health to keep you vital. Enough means to supply your needs. Enough hardship to make you stronger and to make you appreciate the good times. Enough faith to keep you going.

Happy New Year to you all.