Leaving Behind What is Past and Pressing On

I love New Year's. Because I love new beginnings and usually I can go 20 minutes into a new year and claim to be sin-free for that time period. (I didn't make it that long this time because I was bitter and angry at 12:00am at the New Year's revelers destroying my sleep and waking my daughters. Sigh. Next year.)

Life has moved so quickly that I have felt a huge loss (when I've had time to feel anything) at having no time for introspection and reflection. Starting in about August I felt like a jet engine revving its engine and going down a 4-month long runway without ever taking off.

There is little rest in this life I lead and it was December 23 when I had everything done for my family's arrival (that was going to get done) and we went to celebrate my mom's birthday that I started feeling the tension leaking out of my body and realized how overwrought I've been. The last ten days have been exactly that for me...a slow leak of all the exhaust from my jet engine. I came down with a cold that has progressed to a cough. But I moved at a much slower pace and told myself nothing had to be done. We ate simpler and had friends over while telling them I wasn't doing elaborate preparations and "please don't use the upstairs bathroom." (Smile.) Mike took last week off and helped with the girls. I rested. I read a book, watched The Pacific with Mike, I slept in. We just relaxed about the very tight budget and agreed to use our savings for a few things we needed.

Now that period is coming to an end and I'm looking down the road to a new year and a new season. I'm not going to make resolutions per se. But I will be setting goals, following a friend's brilliant example. I have some work to do yet but Goal no. 1 is:

Cool my jets. Slow down. Be simple.

So the practical application is that I'm giving myself some time to set other goals. Stay tuned.