No Ordinary Saturday

It's quiet tonight; the wind outside is cold and making short shuffling sounds with the leaves on the deck.  The fire in the fireplace has been on all afternoon so I hardly notice the soft hissing sounds it makes.  We almost always take the week after Christmas off to regroup and plan for the new year.  This year, we took the time off and made a quick trip to Texas which was wonderful.  It was good to be back for a while and good to spend some quality time together.  Today we sat down and discussed the new year and all the things we want to do in it.

Funny, isn't it?  Today was really just another Saturday not all that different from last Saturday or the Saturday before that - except that today was the first day of a new year, a new decade even.  Something about that distinction makes many of us stop and take notice.  It's a time to review what you've done, where you've been, where you want to go and what you want to do. Thinking about those things on this Saturday recharges our batteries and opens our eyes even wider to the possibilities that lie ahead.  Whatever bad happened before this Saturday gets chalked up to experience and tossed out with last year's stuff.  We'll take only the lessons learned into 2011and happily move forward, thank you very much! 

For me, it's a great time to throw out the excess, clear out the clutter, slap new ideas on the table, redesign my entire agenda - personal and professional - and make an action plan.  It's not likely that I'll achieve all I set out to but that's okay.  I'm grateful that I continue to have new dreams and a decent amount of energy, drive and determination to get me as close as possible to them. 

I love adventure and I'm convinced that holding on to that adventurous nature keeps me feeling alive.  I have lots of dreams - of working again in the homeless ministry, of finishing the books we have started, of working alongside Mike designing dinnerware and linens and other gift products and of creating a health and wellness center for this community that will provide all types of specialty care by visiting providers and a wide range of preventative care programs for chronic illnesses.  Of writing in a little studio adjacent to my tiny chicken house where feather footed chickens stay busy looking for bugs that wander over from the garden.   Are all these dreams achievable?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But either way, they're still my dreams.

A famous ad man once said, "when you're through changing, you're through."  And in marketing, that's very true - you have to keep moving and evolving to keep up.  I think the same is true in our personal quest to be all we can be.  When you stop dreaming, what's left?  

So here's to 2011 - and all your fabulous, outrageous dreams.  May they all come as close to reality as possible - and may you keep replacing them with new ones all the time.