As part of my annual new year inventory, I've decided (after months of being a terrible blogging slacker) that I need to incorporate themes into my posting days.

Participating in Patty Wysong's meme a2z4u&me last year not only brought me into contact with an entirely different community of wonderful writers, it made me realize that SOTP (seat of the pants) blogging is not the best way to go about having a blog. Perhaps, at some point, this will carry over into my fiction writing, where SOTP continues to win, hands down, over plotting, but for now, I'll work on the planned blogging.

At this point, going with the things that are most often "on my heart" (whatever that means) to write about, I think Mondays will be devoted to Mental Health at Mid-Life, because that covers a huge variety of topics... empty-nest syndrome, perimenopause, enduring the teen years, marriage at mid-life, body image at mid-life, becoming a grandma, etc. Good things, challenging things, and s*** we simply have to put up with, like it or not.

I work Wednesdays at the newspaper office. It's our production day, which makes responding to comments difficult. Therefore, Wednesdays need to be set aside for posts that don't require much response. I suppose that's why so many bloggers do "wordless Wednesdays," but since I'm a word-person, I think Wednesdays may become the day I set aside for promoting OTHER people's words, whether Bible verses or famous quotes or books or blogs worthy of sharing.

Fridays... Because I don't work a full-time day job, and because my kids are mostly grown, Fridays have lately become an experience fraught with boredom, loneliness, and a bad case of "I wish I was doing something." Therefore, I hereby declare Fridays to be FREE FRIDAY. In other words, Friday could be a craft project (yes, those are on my list of things to do in the new year) or a freakishly fun activity (like 'how to go to a movie alone and still have a good time) or a quasi-political rant or some opinion I just can't keep to myself...

There you have it, dear readers, the plan for 2012. At least right now. It could change. I hope you'll join me, and invite others along for the ride.

Thank you for reading, for following, for commenting, for reminding me that I am not just talking to a volleyball named Wilson whenever I post something. You are appreciated, and I pray that the words you find here will encourage, inspire, enlighten and bring you joy and peace!

I took down the Christmas decorations tonight. Everything will go back to the shed tomorrow morning. The fireplace mantel is empty. The top of the piano is bare of decorations.

And I don't care.

Why?

Because it means the year is over. All the turmoil, the trauma, the celebrations and rejoicing of 2011 have come to a close. It's time to turn the page, reboot the computer, reset the perpetual calendar. In the next few days we'll cross an imaginary line into 2012.

It really doesn't matter what number we assign to the year, what matters is the clean slate, the fresh start, the blank calendar.

The new year is a wide open door of opportunity for change, irresistibly attractive, IMO. It's an opportunity to set aside all the baggage I've picked up in the last 365 days and go forth, footloose and fancy free.

Those changes can be internal or external. They can be about writing goals or about personal goals, financial goals or emotional ones. They might fall into entirely different categories. 

What do I want out of my life?

What changes must be made to accomplish those goals?

Time for a little introspection and self-evaluation ... care to join me?

Eri Hashimoto/GHNS

I am not a good vacationer... and I'm not REALLY on vacation anyway since I'm at home recuperating from the flu.

However, I've got so much to do, and I want to spend some time praying out the plan for 2011, I've decided to take a week off from blogging. And exercising.

Well, not completely, since I'll be at Inkwell Inspirations on Wednesday and Saturday, and as soon as I think I can handle it, I'll be doing P90X Stretch or One on One Yoga.


Yeah, if I had an avatar it would probably be Hammy the Squirrel from Over the Hedge.

Blessings to you all, hope you had a wonderful Christmas weekend!

I didn't know I could "opt out" of making new year's resolutions until I was an adult. Every year, sometime between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I'd curl up in my bed with a notebook and muddle through a list of resolutions for the coming year.

Sometimes they represented goals, sometimes they were just daydreams floating through my head. Most of the time I didn't see that list again unless I stumbled upon it while searching for some other item under the bed, or in the jumbled mess of a desk drawer.

By the time I was married and had children of my own I was frustrated with the process. The same faithful standbys popped up on my list again and again: lose weight, get in shape, pray every day, quit fill-in-the-blank (what I was quitting varied, from smoking to drinking to eating too much sugar), get out of debt, save money, get organized, spend more quality time with family, etc. At one point I considered just making copies with a couple blank lines at the bottom for those little extras like "clean closet" I threw in as an afterthought.

Then, five years ago I read Correct Change Required, by Billy Epperhart, (You can buy a copy here: Half.com ) and the way I approached my New Year's Resolutions  changed.

Epperhart breaks down the elements of positive, lasting change and discusses the root of resistance to accomplishing our goals. What is that root? Epperhart calls it "hindering beliefs."

We may write "lose weight" or "get out of debt" on our list of resolutions with the rest of America (see here), but the sad truth is most of us will never "Just Do It!" because we secretly harbor a belief that tells us over and over, "it's impossible."

Somewhere around February or March we start making excuses for ourselves and justifying the status quo. "My mom is overweight, so this is probably genetic. It's hopeless, I'll never lose weight." Or, "Unless I win the lottery, there's no way I'll ever get out of debt. It's impossible."

Do you see the problem? It's the adult version of Dumbo the flying elephant and his magic feather. If you don't believe you can accomplish your goal, then you're defeated before you ever begin. For example, I don't believe I can do a pull-up (or a chin-up), and I will hang helplessly from the pull-up bar until someone comes up behind me to give me a boost. The amazing thing is that the person who helps me applies no pressure to lift my weight. All it takes is a mere touch and suddenly I can do a pull-up/chin-up! It's not a physical problem, it's a mental one. If my mental belief is strong enough to override my muscles, how many other things is my mind preventing me from doing?

Pick up your list of dreams and desires. One by one, take each item and ask yourself,
"Do I believe - REALLY believe in my heart - that I can accomplish this?" If your honest answer is not "yes," you've got some preliminary work to do. Start with the following questions:

1. What DO I believe about this?

• Locate your faith. What you believe in your heart and profess with your mouth identifies what you believe, and what you believe about yourself, and about the world around you, determines the course of your life.
  

2. WHY do I believe that?

• The purpose of this question is to determine if your argument with yourself is legitimate and valid. If you're basing your belief on something someone said to you in the eighth grade, it's time to let that go and find the truth!
  

3. HOW can I change that hindering belief? 

• I'll write more about this in a later post, but for now, take a look at your goal through an objective lens. Unless you've got "win a jackpot at the roulette table in Vegas" on your list, I'd guess the accomplishment of your goals, like mine, will involve basic hard work, discipline, self-control, and learning some new information to replace years of negative programming.

Remember, the Bible says nothing is impossible to those who believe. Believe what? Believe in possibilities, for starters!

Every Christmas, after the presents are opened and the wrappings strewn throughout the living room; once dinner is devoured and the dishes are piled in the sink; with my feet aching and family members warring over the rules for their latest board game, I experience a moment of divine relief: Christmas is over and we're cresting the hill toward the New Year.

I'm not much of a New Year's Eve party girl, though. For me, ringing in the new year is the soul and spirit equivalent of an exclusive private spa in the desert or tucked away in the Alps. The kind of place where you enjoy scheduled periods of meditation and deep relaxation. Where you purge and cleanse and soak away your stress and problems in hot mineral springs, or gooey warm mud, or under smooth, heated stones. (I'm cold, can you tell?) It's where you detoxify a year's worth of exposure to unwanted elements. And when it's time to leave, you do so  refreshed and stimulated in mind and body.

I get excited about the potential stored up in the coming 365 days. Peeling back the cellophane on a new calendar stirs up hope like few other things. Perhaps more so that any other time, the beginning of a new year reaffirms my belief that "all things are possible to him who believes" and "all things are possible with God."
No matter what has gone on in the preceding year, good or bad, there's something wonderfully cathartic about setting it all aside and looking forward. That empty calendar is like a blank slate, and you're holding the chalk!

I want to encourage you to DREAM BIG over the next few days. I'm not talking about making a list of loathsome resolutions that look suspiciously like another set of rules you have to keep. I'm talking about the desires of your heart, the goals you've been too hesitant or insecure to put on paper;  the dreams you've got hidden in that niche in your soul where you keep your most treasured thoughts and memories.

New year's is the perfect time to draw those dreams forth. You can grasp the momentum of excitement and hope for the coming year and let it launch you into action. Finding the power to change; the ability to make (and keep) those resolutions; and restoring the ability to dream, and to dream big, is a subject that's near and dear to my heart.

Will all your dreams come true this year? Probably not in their entirety, at least not if you've dreamed big enough. But if you can come to the end of 2010 and say to yourself, "I've made progress toward _______," then you're closer than you were to your dream right now.

So, dear readers, are you willing to share? What are some of YOUR dreams for this year? And what are you planning to DO about them?