New Year, Early Morning

In my mind, there are two types of people in this world: morning people and night people. I have yet to meet anyone who is both or neither. I am a morning person, Hubby is a night person. My mom is a morning person, my dad is a night person. The one thing we all have in common is that we love our respective times of day, because it is the time in our households when no one else is up. We feel like we are stealing a few hours from the darkness. I love that silent two or three hours on a Saturday morning (like right now) where Hubby is still asleep, there is no TV or radio on, and I can make a cup of coffee and tackle the morning at my own pace.

This morning I've been thinking a lot on conversations I've had in the last week about new year's resolutions, about how everyone handles this in a very different way, but a way that truly reflects them. The two friends I was most inspired by took two very different approaches to making their resolutions, the first is using them as an opportunity to put more good into the world, making goals about in-kind charitable giving and volunteer hours for the year. The second is using them to conquer her fears. I'm not talking about skydiving or snakes, I'm talking about going to the dentist for the first time in 5 years and taking actionable steps to improve her health and life.... that is scary stuff!

I am so inspired by these kind of people, that set long term goals and chip away at tasks until they are finished, especially when they are things that they don't want to do, but they know will improve their life or the lives of others. In the past years I have made resolutions, and I've done a pretty decent job of staying the course. However, I have often used them as an out for not doing more, "Eh, I have a resolution similar to that I'm already working on, so I'm not going to volunteer for this project." Not this year. This year is not another year of resolutions for me, this year I've decided on a guiding phrase. I measure my actions against it and when thinking about joining in or pulling back, I ask if it lines up with my guiding phrase. So, as we begin the new year, I invite you all to join me in 2014 and.....

Be Kind.