Happy New Year

Unimaginative title, eh? But sometimes the tired, well-worn words still say it best. I'm back from the best vacation of my life (more on that soon), had a quiet new year's eve at home, and am full of goodwill today. So happy new year, you all. May 2011 bring you what you want. 


2010 has been an eventful and difficult year. With the Guy moving back and forth, our lives seemed to be in a constant state of upheaval. And for two people who used to talk on the phone for half an hour every day apart from having long leisurely breakfasts and dinners together and sleeping on the same bed talking until we fell asleep--it nearly tore us apart, the distance. 


Yet I had so much to be thankful for--a great job where I'm appreciated and work that I want to do and enjoy doing, an amazing boss who makes my great job just perfect and who's become a dear friend, friends who made my life richer, and my Guy who finally came back home to me. We lost each other and found each other again this year, in a way mirroring how we lost each other as friends and found each other again as soulmates five years ago. If marriage is falling in love many times with the same person, we've just embarked on a relationship that has echoes of the previous ones but is still different enough to be new.


In 2011, I want to try more consciously to improve my life, to not wait for circumstance but seek out what makes me happy. So I started with some of the lessons I've learned over the last year (and should have learned long ago really, and some of them I had and then forgot, which is why writing it down might help). 

1. Someone liking you is not enough reason to like them. 
2. Life's too short to spend time trying to change the mind of someone who doesn't like you. 
3. A walk makes the day better. 
4. So does a hug - as long as it's not from the wrong person. (I realized this was what I missed most when the Guy wasn't home--regular hugs!)
5. So does music. 
6. You're not the center of anyone's life but your own. So take the time to find your own happiness.
7. You can never have too many friends. 
8. Get your work done early, and make time to play. I need to really work hard on this: be very productive during the work-day so I can get an hour or two to myself before I go to bed. 
9. Books are more fun when you can talk them over with someone. 
10. Appreciation works better than criticism. Or the old honey-vinegar thing. 

What do you want to do different this year?