Resolution

I try not to make them. At least not out loud (especially while someone I know is within earshot). Unrealistic. Unattainable. Pumped full of false hope. Instead of listing my "faults", without having first concocted a solid elimination plan, I thought I might take a moment to list a few things I am grateful for and will continue to work towards and support in 2010.

1. Friends
As many of us discover over the years, good friends become family - you hold them just as close, and often times closer, as you do your own blood. I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so many lovely people. Supportive, understanding, open-minded. Thank you to my family for being there for me during the ups and downs of 2009.

2. Hope
Some days I lose sight, but overall, I feel hope. It's not just a popular campaign term. It's a grumble in my belly for more. So much more. I have hope for many things, big and small in 2010, including an end to war (as cliché as it might sound), and with that an end to prejudice and hatred. I hope for advancements and achievements in finding a cure to serious and fatal illnesses. I hope for patience and understanding from those in my life, as well as from myself. I hope for new adventures, discoveries and knowledge, and love. I hope all of this love (the love I am so lucky to feel and receive) will continue.

3. Energy and Ability
I'm not giving up food, alcohol, caffeine...no way am I giving up caffeine, but I am grateful for my natural energy and the ability to take care of myself. I am grateful for the physical ability to walk (not just to the espresso machine, but to work and the grocery store and the clothes line, etc.), to run (not just for fun, but at work for ten hours a day), to bike and hike, kayak and swim, cook and clean, the list goes on. I am grateful for my health, physical and mental, and will continue to maintain it in 2010.

4. Art
This one might actually be a resolution. Although I am grateful for expression through art, and will continue to support artists in general, I made a silent promise to myself to write and read more in 2010. We have books galore, both here and in the States, and yet I take very little time to actually sit and read. My blog is evidence that I do not write nearly enough (at least not enough for me). Conor gave me a new journal for my birthday - I plan to use it more in 2010.

5. Conor
Last (for now), but certainly not least. Conor. It's too easy to say that my life would not be the same had Conor not walked in when he did. It's been six years, stretching back to 2004, and I am grateful for every second of it. And with Conor, shortly after Conor, came Bella, our beautiful little mutt. Our family. I look forward to many more adventures, late nights and early mornings, good days and bad days, hard work and lazy moments, laughter and more laughter, with Conor.

2009 was a good year. It was a great year. May my list of weaknesses grow shorter, even if I don't intend for them to through a New Year's resolution. And my strengths grow stronger.