Looking Ahead

It's that time of year when we begin to think of all those goals that we didn't quite meet last year or focus on changes we'd like to make in order to better ourselves, our living conditions, our financial, mental, physical, or spiritual health.

I have learned that in order to make my "New Year's Resolutions" come true, I must commit to being true to myself; keep my word to myself in order to be of use to others.

I was able, thanks to help from caring people, to take the training of the More To Life Weekend, a program of the Kairos Foundation. The most important lesson that came out of that training for me was the realization that it is just as important to keep promises made to myself as it is to keep promises made to others. The latter has always been vital to me, but to keep my word to myself often just seemed selfish, and therefore, not only unimportant, but sometimes altruistic to surrender.

A promise is a promise, and anyone who makes one is bound by his or her honor to stick to it. I learned that when making promises to myself, such as when setting goals, it is imperative to keep them. This if easier to do if the goal is concrete, measurable, set in a specific time frame, with a plan of action for implementing it. When I subscribe to this plan, I find it works, and goals are met exactly as I defined them.

In order to meet goals, make changes, and improve one's life, keep your thoughts and motives positive. Visualize what you want; see the steps completed and the goal met. As Norman Vincent Peale so aptly advised, "If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal. "

I wish you all a happy new year that includes the realization of your dreams and goals.

Journaling and poetry: Confessions of a closet "rimer"

For far too long, I have neglected my online journal, my blog, as I focused on other tasks, events, and distractions. I'm turning over a new leaf and committing to posting more regularly.

Those who know me will remember that many of my early morning thoughts and journal entries are in the form of poems, mostly rhyming poetry. Sometimes I awaken to "hear" rhymes chanted in my head. I call this idiosyncrasy a Gift from my Internal 'Rimers'. If I'm diligent and lucky, I write down the rhymes before they are forgotten.

The poems can be about anything, usually whatever is of concern at the time and sometimes the product of a dream. They can be serious, simple, humorous, or nonsensical. I embrace the nonsensical with gratitude, after all, one of my favorite poems is "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.

Here is a poem about why we write, a gift from my "rimers" in the early morning hours of August 24, 2009.

We like to write as time goes by

Of things that trouble you and I.

Sometimes we write to ease the pain

Sometimes just 'cuz we must complain.

It can be joy that prompts our rhyme

Ecstatic feelings almost sublime.

And when all is said and done,

By writing we've increased the fun

Or eased the pain or shaped the gripe

Or shared our cause with earnest hype

Or given voice to strong emotion

While writing of our heart's devotion.

So when verses sound within the mind,

Pen them to paper that you may find

What thoughts and feelings are held within

And from the words some meaning spin.