A New Year.....I am back and full of it.

First off, forgive me for the lack of photos or fluff of any sorts....I have a new MAC and can't for the life of me figure out how to get photos on here. But, I am back. I am ready to spill my thoughts out to those who have entered my blogging door. I have missed you. I have missed rambling and sharing my new discoveries. My husband really should only have to listen to so much. I thought I could just break up with you all, go back to the quiet world before blogs, but I feel a sense of commitment. I feel that if I learn, I must share. What good is knowledge if it is kept to oneself? So, for what it is worth to anyone listening.....I will continue to share. I will continue to learn.

I have just written and rewritten this post several times. I am usually a one time poster as evident by my usual typos. I just type as I think and I don't usually look back. But, my thoughts are going in a hundred different directions. What have I been doing? What have I learned? What do I want for 2010? So many things to discuss and thank goodness I have a whole year to do it. I will just keep it brief for tonight and leave the rest for later.

2009 was a great year. I feel it was the year I became myself. I can't really explain it much other than the fact that it is the first time in my 37 years that I truly feel comfortable in my own skin. It is a great feeling. I don't know exactly where it came from but probably has something to do with the fact that I am perfectly clear on what I need to be doing and I don't really care about what others think of me. I mean you spend so much of your life on trying to become someone you think you should be. I feel that I know that person now and now I can just focus on her and not worry about what others think. What is important is my family, my health and my worthiness to receive eternal blessings. Clear and simple. Time to work on that.

That brings me to the part about resolutions. I love the new year because we get to start again. We get another year to become our better selves. I worry a lot about our beings in this day and age. We are spoiled. We really have so much and even if we have gone through hard times, our hard times these days pale in comparison with the hard times faced by our ancestors. It's not that I am wishing that we all had to walk the snowy planes with frostbitten toes, it just means that I worry that we aren't getting the blessings of going through the refiners fire as they did. We learn about our potential when we are put to the test. We don't know what we are capable of unless we are faced with a mountain to climb. Most often we don't volunteer to climb the mountain on our own. There is the challenge my sister friends. The "I can do hard things challenge."

This is the year to get out of your comfort zones. This is the year to become the better you. This is the year to find out what you are capable of and prove to yourself that you can do hard things. We never know when hard things are going to come our way but if we can challenge ourselves a bit now, we will have a little more to go on when the real challenges hit. We will have something to look back on and remember that we can do hard things. We CAN persevere. We can finish the task we are given. I have had challenges in my life like the rest of us but I feel that I need to push myself a little more this year. I have claimed my goals. I am setting them at a level that seems a bit uncomfortable and even a bit unattainable but I will complete them because I can do hard things. I want my children to know that and I want myself to prove it. I can climb the mountains and be a better person. I will post more about those goals later but it involves running, for one thing and I really hate it. But, I have been at this goal for a month now and I have learned a tremendous lesson already and it really has nothing to do with the act of my feet hitting the pavement.

I urge you all to pick a project. Make it hard. Tell people about it. Blog about it so you will be obligated to stick to it. Comment here about it. Some may be too personal but I challenge you to pick a temporal goal and a spiritual goal. Remember, this is hard. That means something different for everyone. It may be to change the way you eat, specifically. It may be to give of your time to something, specifically. It has to be something that can be labeled and completed so that you can feel the accomplishment at the end. It will help you become who you need to be. Then, you need to accept no excuses. Of course, it can't be something that will keep us from what is really important in our lives now. It is something to better ourselves, not hinder.

Think about it. Make 2010 a year on becoming. A year on bettering. A year on growing. A year of refinement.

It is going to be a great year.

Thanks for stopping by.