aspire

Here we are having just flipped the page to 2012 (figuratively as we still don’t have a new calendar…).

New Year’s has never been a favourite celebration of mine. It’s always just sidled up, riding the coattails of our Christmas festivities. We’ve established certain traditions surrounding it and more again this year but we’re still pretty dull around it. We pause the game, the movie or occasionally the snores to share a New Year’s wish. We feast with family and friends. We get back to a schedule, regular bedtimes, foods outside the umbrella of chocolate. New Year’s is the bookend on our December revelries.

This new year, though, has felt somewhat different. I feel this year, more than previous years, the weight of its promise. A new year, a fresh start, a renewal of hopes and dreams. A reset button of sorts on all those things I didn’t get done last year and a chance to look ahead.

Without consciously deciding it, my mind has filled with plans, goals, hopes and desires for this new year. Some to share, some to ponder, some to challenge and some to release. They’ve been swirling around in there, amongst the unfinished Christmas gifts, laundry and Christmas…er…New Year’s letter I’d like to write. And so I’m beginning to name them…sharing a few with hubby, jotting them down in my journal, let them gather speed.

But rather than holding myself to another  (particularly longer) to-do list I’m naming a word for this coming year, aspire. Rather than resolving or goal-setting, I’m choosing to aspire. Aspire to try new things, have more fun, love deeper, drop anger, smile at strangers, cherish the moments, enjoy the twists and turns of this adventure…and on the more practical end I just may have told Dan I am going to aspire to tackle my yarn stash. Doesn’t aspire have a much more forgiving tone to it?

Yes, I have many aspirations but I know also how little I can foresee the path this journey will take. So I’m holding tight and looking forward to this year of promise.

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Have you made any resolutions for this new year? Or perhaps, like me, you’d prefer to aspire?

Either way, I’m wishing you many blessings for this new year!