It's here, brand spanking new, and fresh as can be -- it's New Year's Day!

I know, another holiday has sneaked up on us while we were being busy living life, huh? Wasn't Christmas over a few seconds ago?

Kathy wrote a funny blog about not making resolutions and it made me think how I stopped making resolutions a few years ago. I HATE when people decide that on one particular day of the year they're going to suddenly change course and do things differently. Most of the time we can't stick with that kind of cold turkey thinking, you know? At least I can't -- I do better with easing into something new. Right now I know I need to do some things differently -- the kind of things many people put on a resolution list like Take Better Care of Myself and Exercise and Watch What I Eat and De-Stress. You know, that sort of thing. I have to, considering the messages I've been receiving from my body lately. It's saying, "Hey! Pay attention to me or you'll be sorry!" Have you had those kind of messages? A breathing emergency that probably wasn't addressed correctly last month led to my first ever call to 911 for a health emergency and getting my first ambulance ride to an ER. While there, I had to listen to a Code Blue two cubicles over. That person didn't make it and later someone a few years older tham me was being brought in unresponsive. As I was being driven home later by my son, we passed a church with one of those signs out front that make you think you just got the Meaningful Message That Seems to Be There Just for You. It read, "Life's a gift. Enjoy." I was already feeling grateful I got to go home from the ER when I saw the sign and thought about how someone once said there is no such thing as coincidence, that everything that happens is supposed to be some kind of message for us. So I don't think that sign was a coincidence. I think I needed to remember: life is a gift and I should be grateful and humble and appreciative of it.

So, I won't be making resolutions on New Year's Day, but I WILL be sitting down and working on my Master Mind (by Jack Boland) goals for the year. You start by writing down what you accomplished the previous year and thank God for His help in that and then write down the things you want His help in accomplishing for the coming year, month by month. Then, as you get to each month during the year, you set up weekly and daily goals. Resolutions are tricky -- you can make them and not back them up and then they fail you. With this goal process, you MUST do the work on a daily basis to make what you want to happen in your life ... happen, starting with spiritual work you want to do and moving outward to the world we live in and what we want to accomplish in it.

I'm eager to get started. I hope you have a wonderful new year and become and do and receive all that you want from our God who created this wonderful world for us! He's just given us a new year. Let's enjoy it!

Blessings!

Barbara