kitanzi | New Year, Old Year

So this marks another year off, and there are things I'm glad for in the old one, and things I hope will be different in the new one.

I am glad I'm alive, that I'm fundamentally healthy, that I have people to care about who care about me. I'm glad that each year I learn and grow a little bit more. I am glad that I'm not the same person at 37 that I was at 17, and I'm looking forward to finding out who I am when I'm 57.

I want to learn to do more and think less, to recognize when I'm overanalyzing things and distancing myself from people, and to remember why that's a bad thing. At the same time, I want to recognize my own buttons and issues better, and manage them better myself, rather than apologizing for them after the fact. I want to do five things I've never done before - no, I don't know what yet - even if I don't think I'll like them. I want to do the least harm and the most good that I can - but I want to stop fretting over the doing harm, and take more joy in the doing good.

I want to look at 2007 a year from now, and say it was a year I did not waste, a year I'm glad I lived.

And I want all of you to be able to say the same thing, whatever that takes for you. Happy New Year.