Twenty-Fourteen, y'all.

It's the very first day of 2014 and I think I am coming down with the flu.  I kissed N at midnight last night and I think that's what did me in.  Worth it, though, to end the previous and begin the new year smooching on your favorite person.

So yeah, I want to talk about 2014 a bit.  I personally love reading everyones thoughts on New Years.  They are all so full of hope and they are inspiring to me.  It's one really long pep talk for the upcoming year.  I like that.

But first I'd like to thank you all that left sweet comments on my spotty posting this past month or more.  I haven't been great about keeping up but with the new year finding it's way here already I feel like it's time to get back into it.  And besides, I have so much stuff I want to tell you all!  It's been a record month for planning and dreaming and I am so excited for 2014 and all that we are making happen!

So, on to 2014.

I love organized holidays, they leave me with a wonderful buzzing feeling all over and I just can't help it.  I'll pipe up and tell the room what I am thankful for on Thanksgiving, decorate sugar cookie santas, brave the cold to see the best Christmas lights, wrap presents while listening to the classics, and eat black eyed peas all new year's day.  I will partake in all manner of traditions with the utmost, genuine, child-like excitement, every time.

But the older I have gotten the more new years resolutions seem silly. The seem like a way to put off what you wanted to do in the previous year.   I hear, 'I want to do this but, you know, I still have a couple of days until the new year…'  and it is just selling yourself short.  Not starting something today simply because it will be January first in a week and anything worth really starting is best started with pomp and circumstance, along with the rest of the world, is counterproductive.

There are some things I want to start.  I want to start blogging more, I want to start running again,

Those things are best started now.  If now just happens to be January the first, then wonderful, start being awesome on the first.  If now happens to be in March, then start in March.  Just don't put things off for an imaginary magical start date.  Your daily resolutions are much stronger than those made with sweeping excitement.

But, being the planner and grower that I like to be, there are some things that I want for 2014.  I do like the idea of a new year as a new go-round.  I can look toward 2014 and make it whatever I want it to be.  Looking back, 2013 was a rough year.  It wasn't necessarily bad, it was just taxing.  This past year has left me tired and feeling a little adrift.  So for 2014 I am hopeful, and I am standing here, on the first of January, bearing ideas.  And as my thought flow best this way, I made a little list.

One. Find peace in the idea of breaking away from a life plan.  Accept that people won't alway understand why you are doing what you are doing but have faith that you are doing what is right for you.

Two. Be strong.  Some things will threaten to crush you but do not let them.  Learn to accept and move on.  Learn to see the experience in a bad situation and have faith that there is purpose in this trial. And above all remember that God won't bring you to anything that you and him cannot handle together.

Three. Don't take yourself too seriously.  Life can be funny if you let it.  Learn to let things roll off and realize that it's not as big a deal as you think it is. There is so much freedom in this.

Four. Love more.  Feel it more.  Let it envelope you.  This isn't weakness, this is letting yourself truly relish one of life's greatest emotions.  Life is too short to be harboring bad feelings toward others. 

Five. Live simply, buy fewer, better things, and learn to live contently with the things you have.  Find the beauty in the function and don't constantly strive for the next thing you want to get.

Six. Focus on experiences.  Value learning, seeing, and doing over having, getting and acquiring.

Seven. Revel in the simple.  Cups of green tea, good books, cozy blankets, the outdoors, a rainstorm, a flickering candle, you time, whatever makes you feel grounded, in the simplest of terms.

Eight. Enjoy today.  Dreams are wonderful but don't lose yourself in them.  Be present and remember that this day is beautiful too.

Nine. Be so, so kind.  Allow yourself to be.  It's about letting go of bad feelings and resentments rather than overcoming them with force.  Be kind to yourself as well as all these beautiful people around you. 

Ten. Do what makes you happy, not what makes others happy for you.  If you want to wear something, wear it.  If you don't want to get married, don't.  If you'd rather stay in and knit than go out drinking, please, do that!  Just don't try to fit into a mold that someone else made for you.

Eleven. Be real.  Live authentically and wholly.  Be honest with yourself and others.  Be who you are, regardless of who's company you are in.  Don't live life on the surface, dig deep and make it really count.

Twelve. Continue dreaming.  Dream big, huge, even.  Don't let petty struggles dissuade you, don't let them take this away.  Tomorrow is always a new day and new dreams are on the horizon. You just have to be there to grasp them.

Thirteen. Take risks.  Do that oddball thing, take a chance.  Add a little recklessness to your life, for there is only one.

Fourteen. Work really hard.  But don't forget to stay humble.  Find those things that you believe in, that job that really gets you, that relationship that you can't live without and work at it.  Work so hard that at the end of the day, you know that you gave it your all.

Fifteen. Grow.  And do so with abandon.  Don't pass up an opportunity to learn a new skill, experience a new place, try a new food, or meet a new person.  Do it all and grow with the experience and never stop learning.

Sixteen. Be brave.  Do something that scares you. Those ideas that make you reach and things that you never thought you could do, embrace them.  Take the norm and throw it out the window in hopes of finding something much more fulfilling and beautiful.

These are just some of the things rattling around in my head on this first of January, twenty-fourteen.  Some things I would like to keep in mind as this year gains steam.

So here's to 2014, a new year to make our own.

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