The Road Ahead

"All my life's a circle; But I can't tell you why; Season's spinning round again; The years keep rollin' by. It seems like I've been here before; I can't remember when; But I have this funny feeling; That we'll all be together again. No straight lines make up my life; And all my roads have bends; There's no clear-cut beginnings; And so far no dead-ends." Harry Chapin from Circle

The season that seems to be the most 'me' is summer; but there are other times, throughout the year, that I not only find important but to which I always look forward. One such is the time between Christmas and New Year's Day.

It is an over the hump time. With the winter Solstice behind us, each day is getting a tiny bit longer. Although we are heading into the coldest days of winter, it comforts me to know the days are lengthening. The bustle of Christmas is behind and ahead lies the quiet of January. Okay it's not always quiet, but it is a slower pace although on a small ranch (big ones even more so), it's a time of heavy feeding of livestock and new births.

In a few days it will be 2007, and I am always hopeful with the start of a new year that it is going to be 'the' one. No matter how often I find out when it's over that year wasn't so super after all, I still always think as I enter-- new roads and days ahead and they're gonna be good.

This is my time for reevaluation, of assessing where I've been and where I am going-- spiritually, emotionally and physically. Using the new year as a time of new resolutions has a bad rap in my opinion although I don't call what I write resolutions. They are goals with suggested ideas for how I think I might achieve them. Since I became a computer user, it is what I use as I intersperse a few special photos or art from the year I am leaving. These represent what has been and what I want more of in my life.

Once written down, I don't go back over those goals until the new year becomes the old one. I have had a feeling they work best if I am not constantly readjusting what I wrote. I also don't write what I hope someone else will do for me. These are for me and aimed at my doing the things and being the woman I want to be-- and yes, at 63, I am still working on that.

This is also not a time I beat myself over the head for failures. I simply look at what I wanted, what steps I took to get there, and reassess what might be more successful in the coming year-- if I still want the same thing.

One of the main advantages of taking time each year to do personal goal making is you are less likely to get pulled along by someone else's goals. If those near you know what they want, but you don't, you are likely to be the one wondering at the end of your life whose road you followed.

Starting in the year 2000, I have had a dream day that is still at the heart of my goals. I wrote it because I had read a book on how to get what you want. You were to describe a day you considered most perfect. Write it down in detail, visualize it. From year to year, some elements of my day were proving elusive because they involved someone else; and then I realized to have my ideal day, I have to be the woman in it. Now most of my goals are aimed at being the woman I visualized.

Seven has always been my number; so, of course, I believe 2007 is going to be a good one. Yep, this one is 'the' one. May it be for you also.