TheBanyanTree: New Years

[Julie Anna Teague]

Fabulous writing, Pam.  I love the idea of a bright, clean slate on 
which to start writing our lives from this day forward!  You are an 
inspiration.

Julie

Quoting Pam Lawley <pamj.lawley at gmail.com>:

> I'm not much on New Year's Resolutions.
>
> I have a big desk calendar... each day is a 3-inch (about) square, and
> flipping over this month reveals next.  I *love* getting a new one every
> November... a whole year laid out perfectly clean and sparkling pretty!  No
> doctor's appointments scratched in, no meetings scratched out, no coffee
> stains or weird little notes left by others.  Fresh and new and totally
> unblemished!!  I think it's a perfect metaphor for life.
>
> As a side note, I also like them after December 31st...  I moved buildings
> twice this year, and I finally had to bite the bullet and throw away my old
> calenders that had been wedged in between my desk and the walls of my
> cubicle.  I kept keeping them thinking I might need to go back and check
> something, but I never did.  Mostly they represented giant diaries of the
> past four or five years of my life...  Anybody who knows me knows that if it
> ain't on that calendar, it ain't happening!!  But alas, I sent them all to
> the dump.
>
> Anyway, the new year... it represents a whole twelve months, 52 weeks, 365
> days, you get the idea, of nothing screwed up!  Nobody's feelings I hurt, no
> extra calories I consumed, no fight I started.  Of course, to be fair,
> there's also no feelings that I soothed, no extra calories I either shunned
> or thoroughly friggin enjoyed!!, and no fight I conceded.   But I think,
> it's human nature to want to start it positively!  In a perfect world I
> wouldn't have an extra ounce of fat or spend a single hour on the couch when
> I could be moving!!  Which is really a stupid statement since I think my
> life is pretty close to perfect - or at least a lot more than I deserve or
> ever expected! - and I do have some fat which keeps growing as I get older!,
> and I do love to watch me some 'House'!   So anyway, to positively start
> this next year, I think there are a few things I should resolve to do.
>
> I haven't resolved to do much for a new year since the year I resolved to
> stop drinking.  Oh yeah, I stopped on January 1st like a good little
> resolutionist!  And, then I started again a few weeks later.  To my credit,
> life is all about progress -  not perfection! though, and I managed to carry
> out the rest of that resolution later in the year.  Likewise, this year, I
> don't hold out a lot of hope that I'll actually follow through all 12
> months, 52 weeks, etc, with these resolutions, but at least it'll make me
> feel as if I've started the year brightly, knowing that there are things
> about myself I'd like to improve, and actually taking a step or two to do
> it!  Maybe I'll lose interest along the way, or maybe something will spark
> and change my life completely!  It's a whole new clean slate and anything
> can happen!!
>
> Happy New Year's friends!!!!!!!!
>
> Health and happiness to each of you in 2011!
>
> Pam
>