Time For Resolutions

At the end of every year many people world wide like to think up a resolution to accomplish by the end of the next year. I am one of those people, though for the life of me I can’t think of what my resolution was last year – guess that’s a sure sign I didn’t stick with it, LOL! This year though, I must admit I’ve been doing a lot of contemplation over what would be the best goal to make for myself to accomplish by the end of 2012. I’ve probably put a lot more serious thought into this year’s resolution then I have in previous years. Maybe that’s a good sign for me that I’ll actually stick with it this time around. I’m taking some things with myself more seriously though and I think this coming year should be about working on two main areas in my life, my work and my health. My work in regards to laying more ground work on what I hope to accomplish long term as a writer. I want to get myself to write a lot more frequently in this blog of mine, as well as work harder on getting my first novel done. I want to further educate myself on being a better writer – and challenge myself to do so as well. That may seem like a small goal to make to some, but really in the broader sense of it – I have a lot of work ahead of me. Work that will be hard in ways, but I am confident enough that I will accomplish what I am setting out to do. 

Watch Those Kids!

I feel I should preface this post with the fact that I do not have children. Despite the fact that I have been an active aunt for many years, I’m also not going to delusion myself in thinking I know what it’s like to take the kids out while you run errands or do your holiday shopping. I will say that I do think there are sadly, a lot of parents out there who need to learn to actually keep an eye on their children while out and about – especially during such busy shopping seasons as we are in now. There are people who are moving up and down the aisles at a constant rate these days in the stores hunting for the perfect gifts for family and friends. Needless to say, it’s a hectic season and one where we should all perhaps do our best to be cordial and considerate to those around us while out in public. How people behave generally in stores though is not my main concern here.

While at a local Meijer store today with a friend of mine who was doing a bit of holiday shopping, I turned in an aisle to go off and find a scanner to price check something. As soon as I turned around my foot caught to something that nearly sent me flying forward. Thankfully I was able to catch my balance and not fall flat on my face in the aisle. However, I felt completely and utterly awful to say the least when I turned around to see what I had tripped over and spotted a startled little girl. I immediately apologized up and down to the poor child and inquired to her if she was okay. I turned around to who I presume was the child’s mother who nonchalantly told me it was okay, even as I apologized to her as well. I found myself feeling just horrid of the event as I slinked my way past the parents out of the aisle apologizing again on my way out of it. As I made my way out of the aisle I couldn’t help noticing that nobody walked over to the child I tripped over to check on her. It seemed the parents of this little girl had just gone back to yakking with someone else in the aisle.

Blank Canvas

Have you ever taken a good hard look at yourself? I mean really give yourself a good hard honest examination? I have numerous times over the years or so I thought. Lately I’ve been taking the time to really examine myself, not just the things I want in life, but who I am as a person. Taking more notice to the things I like, things I feel, life around me and how I feel about myself generally. In the past I’ve been so easy to cut myself and focus only on the negative aspects. I thought that was what it meant to be honest with myself. Most recently, I have found myself able to actually compliment myself on some things and not just cut to the negative. I can see positive things about me now as well. For example, though I still crave cigarettes almost daily and have the occasional smoking dream – I’m proud of myself for quitting and going longer then a year and a half. It’s actually almost been two years with the anniversary in this coming February. I’m not proud to admit this, but I smoked off and on for ten years, more on then off, but regardless it was a struggle with an addiction that I didn’t like having. So in the past, I would cut myself down with terms like “weak” and “pathetic” for allowing something to sort of take over and get as bad as it did. Now though, as I sit back and take a good hard look at myself, I can honestly pat myself on the back, because quitting smoking has been one of the hardest self hurdles I’ve had to endure and I can definitely sympathize that it’s not easy to put the pack and lighter down.