At Year's End ...

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
~Oprah Winfrey

I guess it's inevitable.  No matter how much I try to avoid it, around this time of year I still find myself thinking about what the coming year will bring, and how I hope it will be better than the past. I think about the changes I want to make, for myself and for others - the things I want to do differently, and the different results I hope to achieve from those changes.

Lately it seems to be on my mind even more. Maybe that's because we're all so bombarded with facebook posts and television commercials about everyone's resolutions, leading us to think about our own (or our lack thereof).  

More than anything, though, I think it's got a lot to do with the birthday I just had, and the one that comes next.  I'll be turning ... (deep breath) ... forty ... at the end of next year.  (Sigh.)  Yes, it's a whole year away, but it's a big deal to me, so I'm thinking about it already.

The Perfect Post

Where to begin?

It's been nearly a year since my last post, so there's a lot of pressure to make this one worth the wait.  Who's putting that pressure on me?  Me, of course.

In fact, the pressure to write the perfect post has actually kept me from writing anything for a while.  There have been quite a few times that I've started to write something, thought "no, that's not good enough," and just deleted the whole thing.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I've had that mentality about quite a few things over the years ... and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

• I was going to start that diet, but there's a holiday coming up, so ...
• I was going to start that exercise program, but I can't do one part of it, so ...
• I was going to start cooking, but I'm just not good at it, so ... 
• I was going to start that craft project, but ...
• I was going to ...