New Year
It's been at least two weeks since my last confession, but the fact that I am resuming my writing resolution with the first post of the year is just a happy coincidence.The last two weeks have been filled with holiday fun, family, and flu. And, while and enjoying all of that merriment with my two cherubs (lovingly nicknamed Thing1 and Thing2) inspired many a blog-worthy tale, the school-enforced break that kept the chaos running at home 24/7 was surprisingly not conducive to the telling of them. But I figure today I'm starting with a clean slate (the only thing still clean in this house).My 2012 had a few white-hot bright spots in it - I found my way in to a group of incredibly talented and encouraging writers, while Thing1 and Thing2 had and were some of the biggest moments for me and the Big Guy - but we sorely needed that light to warm us as the year drew to a close. Too often the antics in Washington had me wondering if someone had stolen our home movies of Thing1 and Thing2 to play instead of the evening news reel and if we should create an official elected position of Federal Den Mother (with the power to withhold allowances/salaries from elected officials who act like children).And then there were the out-and-out tragedies which seemed to give little room to catch our collective breaths. Some were disastrous, some were close to home, and one once-unthinkable act that claimed 28 lives was frighteningly close to our hearts. And, even when I tried to follow Mr. Roger's advice and look for the helpers in these tragedies (the beacons of hope for our species), the tragedies seemed to come ins such quick succession that I accepted the brief surrender of my writing time (normally sacred thanks to last year's resolution) in favor of the chaotic cocoon of my family life.So now it's on to continuing the best resolutions of last year - 28 random acts of kindness, nurturing my writing, and encouraging others' self-expression. There will be new ones - might as well add diet it to the list. Again. Start and stick to a budget. Again. And again.But regardless of how long the diet resolution or the budget resolution last, the big decision of this or any year has to be the choice to acknowledge the world as it is - unsatisfyingly unpeaceful and uncooperative regardless of the missives of any holiday season - and push ahead with our lives anyway. And possibly, in the process, maybe we'll improve it a little this year. At least, our little corner of it.