New Year, New Blog

Well, it's official, it's 2012! I have decided to welcome the new year with a new blog post - something I abandoned pretty early on in 2011. Just one girl among the masses you will see at the gym for the first two weeks of January, I made a lot of vows to myself for the year. This includes a vow to use my brain a little bit more - and I'm going to start by giving my writing muscles a little flex. I tend to want to revert to complete brain shut-down mode when I come home from work - just give me some mindless tv and a bit of facebook perusing, please. This has to stop... or at least, improve a little.

The past year has been a crazy one for me. First of all, I fell in love. And, without sharing too many fluffy details (both to protect your gag reflexes and my love's private nature), I can simply say that although it's certainly not the first time (and those who know me know that quite well), it's definitely the best time. There's some sort of fantastic balance I've never achieved before- undoubtedly a mixture of meeting a specific person and, in large part, timing...

In the midst of settling into a new relationship, I also had a relatively stressful year regarding my health. It was something I didn't discuss too openly nor very widely, but I did have the support of a small yet solid group of friends and family when I needed it. Let me summarize the ordeals by simply stating that there was a surgery, a tumor, more than one biopsy, and far more needles than I care to see ever again. And while I only feel comfortable putting this into cyberspace now that I can say everything turned out fine and I am healthy, I would certainly strongly encourage all the women in my life to maintain their regular health screenings. It can be your resolution.

As it turns out, the steady combination of upheaval and overwhelming delight in my life in 2011, as a result of the events shared here and those that will remain personal, created obviously a strong sense of personal growth and contentment - but also more of a desire for balance. I've always struggled with balance, in a trillion arenas of my life - but I've always been pretty lenient on myself regarding the failures as it always seems to indicate that there are just too many people to love, things to do, games to play, and subjects to learn... that really, the struggle itself seems to reveal itself as a blessing.

Nonetheless, I have resolved to do many things this year. It's come to my attention that there's this whole, righteous anti-resolution movement - but I am nothing if not a slave to tradition. There's something ceremonial about the process, even if some are a bit more successful than others (I think I wrote a blog this time last year about resolving to make my bed every day? Uh... right.). Personally, I like to think of it the way my yoga instructor teaches... more of a process of setting your intentions for the year.

At the end of the day (or, as it goes here, at the end of the year), we all want the same things: better health, better friendships, better organization - and, really, just a whole lot of love and happiness. I guess we all just kind of plan to get there in different ways- person to person, and year to year. And, even if we are "anti-resolution", it is difficult not to think of the beginning of another year as a little bit of a clean slate.

Good luck to everyone in accomplishing all you want to accomplish... and, if I do things the way I want to, you'll hear more from me about how that's going in 2012 ;-)