Champagne makes a great toast, but what I love the most about the New Year is the chance for a fresh start. It’s more than just resolutions (I’ve already broken mine--have you?) For me, the excitement is in the new beginning. It’s a second chance, a time to ask myself “what am I going to focus on this year?”
That’s pretty good, but THIS New Year is extra exciting because:
- There’s a new decimal in our year, and
- It’s a leap year, so we get a Bonus Day to do all the things we love to do!!!
There’s something very exciting about a list of fresh starts. Even though the list contains the same concepts year after year, each New Year I have a chance to start afresh all over again:
- road map--my writing goals for the year help me compose a new road map toward those goals. Last year I got pretty close, but this year I get to start all over again, planning a new course. Maybe this one will be the charm!
- calendar--even though I always rely on my very familiar and comfortable format for tracking writing, I love visiting the stores and choosing which calendar will match my fresh start of the year. This year I want to study lights and darks (in both writing and art), so I picked a Thomas Kincade calendar.
- new shiny--the next, new writing project presents a new skill set to learn, and the excitement of the challenge lures me to my desk in spite of January’s cold, dark morning. It’s the same in art, as I’m branching out to a brand new type of subject that is totally opposite from anything I’ve ever painted before.
- new reading plan--cleaning out the storage locker, I’m finding boxes of books I forgot I owned. I’m going to focus on reading some oldie but goodies in the year ahead. It’s so easy to get distracted, caught up in new stories!
