This is my first post of 2015. I love that I am sharing it
with you, my fellow A to Zer’s. As I sit here, propped up in bed after a day on
the road, the last of my “holiday travel” I have no clue what to write about. I
want to give amazing advice, wonderful words, be a meaningful model but all of
that falls short of what my heart is full of right now. What my heart is still “digesting”
is how lucky I am. I had a wonderful time with my family over the last few
weeks, and with loving friends. Connections were made and previous ones
renewed. I go into this new year with a feeling of hope and of being loved
after some really hard moments in 2014. I know that I am not alone in my hopeful
feelings, but I am also aware that not everyone was as lucky as I was in 2014.
So if I have one thing I will take away from last year and all its trials and
joys, that one thing is that I am grateful, I am honored, I am aware and want
to share the blessings I have been given. I know we are often told, "don't look back," but I hope that as you begin your new
year you do have a moment to, instead of only looking forward or making new year’s
resolutions, look back and think on what you have learned from the last 365
days, what you might have to offer to the universe for the blessings you had,
or if your year was not so great, that looking back might give you the strength
to make this year better. A new year is upon us. 365 chances to make good. I’m
going to do my best to make something I can be proud of with those chances.
This post is, I hope, a good example. Because for someone who didn’t know what she wanted to
say here this time, guess I found something to write about after all.
Images from:
You can find out more about me there, including my previous attempts at the A-Z Challenge but beware, you'll probably find yourself down a rabbit hole and struggle to find your way out.
I've managed to complete the challenge 4 times times now and fully intend to do so in 2019.
Yes it's that time of year for making resolutions. I always make resolutions but I'm not very good at keeping them.
The first year I took part in the challenge I didn't even know it existed at New Year so I fell into it and waffled my way through. Actually I had a theme of Family and Relationships that worked well for me because I'm part of a very large extended, but extremely close family.
For 2016 I resolved to be more ambitious and plan ahead and the theme of London Underground stations got me out and about taking photos so I was pleased about that but still wasn't as prepared as I needed to be. Lessons to be learned!
2017 was a particularly challenging year. Even though I started out probably more prepared than before, life sometimes life throws you a curve ball. Our first Grandchild arrived on 31st March. You could be forgiven for thinking if I was prepared I had factored his arrival in to my planning and all would be well. Except his arrival was not supposed to have been until mid June! But he and I both survived some challenging times and since then 2 more Grandsons have arrived and they take up a lot of my time.
Lovely, enjoyable time like this:
A bracing walk on Christmas Eve 2018.
So if 2017 was a lot of random waffle 2018 became a lot of waffle about sport. Quite an achievement considering I'm not in the least sporty!
Hmm where was I. Oh yes resolutions. See what I mean about waffle?
In 2018 I made a list of 18 things to try and achieve during the year. I failed miserably but it hasn't stopped me making a new list of 19 things for 2019. (19 in 19) Many of them are the same things, a few are new. Actually I've called them objectives. I'm definitely not into saying things like I'll give up chocolate (or even eat less chocolate) because I would fail, big time. The list will hopefully improve some areas of my life and of course it does include completing the 2019 A-Z Challenge.
I'm aiming to do more of a writing theme this year and I have already started work on it. (I even left a clue somewhere in this post.)
Well I think that's enough about me and my resolutions. What about you? Resolutions - love them or hate them? New Year or any time? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
If you've made it here thanks for reading and thanks to the A-Z team for the invitation.
