Life gets busy, doesn't it?

I'm sitting here on the last weekday of Christmas Break wondering where the holiday time-off has gone.  Yes, I am happy with the amount of projects I've gotten accomplished over the two-week vacation, but there are so many more to accomplish this last weekend. 

Thinking about the shortness of time, it seems like only yesterday that I wrote my last blog.  That is until I looked at the date I last posted (March!).  Yes, life has gotten busy.  Now, it's the end of Christmas Vacation.

For me, it seems, this will be a year of changes.  I've been contemplating the many different things I would like to do.  Right now, I'm just researching and exploring all the interests I have.  I have a feeling, though, that it's time for me to climb out of my comfort zone and try something new.  (I don't want to spill all the beans just yet, but I already have some things in the works...).

I think the Life 101 lesson (as my friend Nancy calls it) is that when you get set in your ways and in too much of a routine, it's important to do something different.  Going through life in a robotic and mechanical way leads to boredom and eventually to depression.  Now that I'm thinking of changes and hoping for better things in the future, my feelings of anger and frustration with things as they are seems to be changing.  I've found myself smiling and thinking to myself about what I'm planning for the future, and I feel that the current situations don't really affect me as they did.  I don't have to be frustrated, afraid, or angry, because I know for certain that much of what upsets me is only temporary and just waiting for the change that is just ahead for me.

So, even though things are busy, and there are quite a few things I have no control over, I believe I can start carving out a path to something new and exciting.  I know there will be challenges along the way, but I also know I would rather face those challenges with the hope of new experiences ahead than to feel trapped and chained in a future with no hope.

Why is it?

Why is it that when you are not on vacation, you feel great, but the minute vacation rolls around, you can't get out of bed because you feel so sick?  Or why is the weather perfectly wonderful when you have inside things to get accomplished, but the minute you have some free time to enjoy the weather, it turns torrential? 

When I was younger, I used to believe I lived a charmed life.  Nothing ever seemed to be difficult to accomplish, and somehow everything just worked out.  Now that I'm older, everything seems way too complicated.  Something that should be simple to work out becomes a major struggle to finalize, and there always seems to be someone with some ulterior motive standing in the way.

I do know one thing.   Even though my resistance to this flu-like feeling is rather low, this isn't the time to give in to feelings of defeat and surrender.  I am determined to stand strong and continue.  I refuse to allow anyone, including legislators, to get the best of me and, like Dylan Thomas, I urge myself and others, saying, "Do not go gentle into that good night..."

The First of Many More Blogs to Come

I've always thought that one day I would be a writer.  Don't get me wrong, I've had a few things published, but they aren't the sort of things that would make one a household name as far as authors go.  At this point, though, it's time I got off my seat of "wishing-it-were-so," and started doing something about it.  So, this blog is my beginning - the first step in my journey.  Hopefully, I'll learn along the way, and share my insights as I go.  It's really true, you know, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.