Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2010. I don't think that much is like the movie 2010, which is something for which we should be thankful. It's so funny...it's just another day, January 1. The sun rises just like it does every other day. The weather continues as it was on December 31. The bills that were supposed to be paid on December 28 are still due. Nothing really changes. Yet in my mind, it is like closing a finished book and putting it on the shelf. Then another book is opened, waiting to be explored. I asked a guy yesterday if he had a good Christmas and New Year. He shrugged and said, "It was just another day." And...he's right..it was just another day. So what makes January 1 so different? We do. We make it different. In the minds of those of us who choose to celebrate this "just another day", it is an official time to start over. Whether with resolutions or, as with most of the people I have talked to, a time to get rid of a not so great year and start a new, more promising one. I have made resolutions, but have decided to defy tradition and not start most of them til January 4. I am cheating! But one resolution that I have already begun is to be more positive about my life. I don't want to have a Pollyanna attitude by any means. But I've learned that what we think is what we are. So if I believe that I can make things different, then I can. It's the belief part that is difficult, though. Start small, I guess. Baby steps.
For instance, "I hate housework" has been my motto for years. My house, unfortunately, reflects that motto. My messy house, in turn, makes me feel depressed, which makes me feel bad about the rest of my life. Eventually I get to the point where I just ignore the mess, and just allow myself to get more and more depressed. Today I looked around and thought, I need for Neicy Nash to come see me!! I need to be on Clean House! I am happy that my house isn't THAT bad yet, but I made a vow this morning that I'm going to make my house back to a nice place. Me. Not Neicy and Matt and Mark and that whiney Trish...eek...Me. I am going to start small and do the things that need to be done. And I will do them for MYSELF. Not for anyone else. After all, I am the one who lives here. I have said for the past few months that it doesn't matter what it looks like because I am the only one who sees it. Well, am I not worth seeing a nice place? I deserve to have a nice place. I've worked hard to get it. So it's time. (I just realized, though, that instead of being in there cleaning, I'm in here writing...lol..oh well...)
So, my one resolution that I am beginning right now is to believe that I am deserving of good things. As with most good things, I will have to take the first step, and that is what I will do.
So, why do we celebrate a new year? Because it is an official opportunity to start over and make the life for ourselves that we want to have. It is the time when we decide to change our attitudes toward something that we have allowed to color our lives gray and dingy. Wipe away the soot from the windows and see the sunshine. It's very possible that the thing we have allowed to do this will still be around. Even so, our thoughts can change so that we aren't colored by this thing anymore. We can paint our own picture. Not Pollyanna by any means, and certainly not with feigned ignorance...but it is amazing the difference just one positive thought can make in a situation. One stand against the negative can make the next stand easier.
I know I will be tested on this. I will win some, I will fail some. I may not know what your situation is like. But that's the whole point. We each have to make the choice. I'm scared, believe me. I have things that I need to face that no one knows about, as do we all. I am afraid of the failure. But I'm tired of waking up every day and feeling like I'm worthless. I am NOT worthless. YOU are not worthless. If we all lived like we were worth something, would our world be better? I think it might.
My thought for the year:
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, my friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end. ~ Carl Bard

Let's make it a good year!