Starting Fresh

Today is the first day of 2010. It's a good day to make New Years Resolutions - and begin a new life. Most of us make New Years resolutions that we keep to for maybe a month or two. I think this is because we set unrealistic goals. I want to set goals this year that are attainable - but that will truly impact the quality of my life. I encourage all reading this to do the same.

Here are my New Years Resolutions:

Have an Attitude of Gratitude:
Whenever I find myself depressed - it is generally because I am focussing on the negative instead of the positive. Life isn't easy - but it is even more difficult when we focus on the negative. Negativity is a dragon that threatens our life from the inside out. It eats at our
insides and steels our hopes and dreams. Why do we allow ourselves to express ourselves in
such detrimental ways? If we are outwardly positive - but inwardly negative - we are still
negative - and that inner negativity sucks away our life. Many of us worry about things in life
that we have no control over. This is wasted energy. Why not turn that worry and negativity
into something positive? My New Years resolution is to change my worry and negativity into
gratitude. Simply change the energy of the emotion, placing just as much or more energy
on the positive. I believe that we have control over our happiness. If the majority of our time
is spent on worry or negativity we are missing out on why God gave us this incredible
Opportunity called life!

Today I watched the wonderful annimation "Up." Through much of this movie - the old man
is grumpy and worried. He feels if he doesn't get his house to Paradise Falls then he has let
his wife down - and his life hasn't ammounted to much. As the movie unfolds he realizes that
his focus has been all wrong. He realizes that even without his wife - that he can still enjoy life
and make new exciting adventures. He also realizes that everything he thought meant so
much to him (ie: his house and material possesions) really didn't matter. It was all just stuff.
He realized that even as an old man - that he could make a difference in the world. He still
had a purpose. I think that many of us experience this in varrying degrees. If our life is
no longer following the path that it once did -we feel that something is amiss and we
need to steer ourselves back to our original path. This can lead to SO MUCH unhappiness.
Life is about change. The path we are on now may not be the path that we were on at 17 -
that doesn't make it a wrong path. It makes it a different path. All of the experiences of the
past help us create our today.

It reminds me of a poem that I wrote:

Life is unexpected
it winds and turns
over mountains
and oceans

no one knows
where the course
will lead
we have no choice
but to follow

we forge along
at the mercy
of the waves

sometimes
the waves crash
against us
and set us back
but in the end
we're stronger

for the waves
have bathed us
in experience

Living in the past causes worry and dissappointment. This is a destructive dragon. God sent
us here to learn and grow and experience joy. LIFE IS GOOD. Having an attitude of
gratitude helps us to recognize all that God has given us and to enjoy the journey.

I want to try to live each moment in the moment. Be ever present. Too often we are living
in the past or in the future. If we are not living in the present we are missing our life. Life is
lived moment by moment.

Today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present."