It is difficult to believe that we have entered into the final month of 2014. For most of us it has been a roller-coaster ride of enormous speed, twists, turns and topsy-turvy events. Many among my acquaintance cannot wait until 2015 bursts forth from the future into present time; others are not so sure. This past year has been one of self-reflection for me, as life has intervened and required more action and planning on my part than I have ever remembered. In this last month, December 2014, I am not waiting for the ball to drop or the champagne corks to pop to take on some new directions in my life.
I have never been a person to seek out challenges, plan a course of action and follow through on it, or take on something that could not be concluded in a week or less. Generally speaking, I have just let life happen and have made choices based on what seemed to be reasonable at the time. I have to say that this method of getting through life worked quite well for me....until these last few years. As my children have grown, parents have aged or passed to a better place, and business changes, it dawned on me that I should be more brave. Starting this blog is one of my firsts acts of courage and determination to step out of the shadows to see where it takes me.
The first thing that I have noticed in this step into the sun, as it were, is that there are many creative people out and about. It took me 20 minutes to find a .blogspot name that wasn't taken, but at the same time one that I could easily remember. Trying to settle on a theme was another challenge: perhaps unlike most people, I don't have a "passion" for anything in particular. I have friends who love to garden; I have friends who love anything that has to do with knitting or yarn work; I have friends who are passionate about wine and food. I have secretly admired them for years because I just could not find anything that interested me enough to pursue as a hobby.
So I took to heart an exercise I read about whose purpose was to help me identify and focus on what mattered most, what talents and abilities were sitting dormant inside just waiting be born. After this self reflection and writing down all my interests (it is harder than it sounds), step two required that I go to those people who know me best and find out what they see in me that I can't. It was very telling that my spouse of 31 years had a difficult time coming up with anything apart from a great talent to argue with him. Other opinions are still pending, which does not bode well. Could I be one of those persons born with absolutely no talent and ability other than to breathe? Wow, the realization is quite humbling.
In a previous life I taught writing and grammar to middle schoolers. I liked teaching it, and in the course of this labor I discovered that I also liked writing. Through the years I have written essays on many topics, but was not brave enough to throw these musings out into the marketplace. A few were published in the local paper, but the hope that some "brilliant editor" would read these wonders of the pen and offer me a job never materialized.
So for what it's worth, this last month of 2014 is the beginning of a braver, more focused, goal setting and goal achieving me. I hope you follow along.
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