Monday, January 16, 2012

Now I Can Say Hello

H-E-L-L-O TWENTY TWELVE!

Say it like Robin Williams from Good Morning Vietnam.

Hola, Konnishi wa, Ciao, Goedendag, Moi, Bonjour, Guten Tag, Aloha, Shalom, Selamat.

As I was getting in bed New Year's Eve I thought "should I set the alarm?  get up in the morning and start the New Year with a mile run?"  Could maybe set a goal to run a mile every morning for the whole year....would be kinda cool.  But do I really want to get stuck doing that?  Can be a huge commitment, and then if I fail I've got the guilt and crap to deal with.

I decided not to set my alarm.  I would just make the decision to run or not to run when I woke up on my own in the morning. 

I do not make resolutions.  Too easy to fail, and I hate failing.

I woke up without the aid of the alarm and first order of the day is take the dogs for their morning walk.  It's always a little surreal walking in the early morning on new years day.  It's definitely the quietest morning of the year.  Since I woke up without the aid of the alarm it was later than usual for me and the sun was up.  It was a chilly morning.  I noticed the sun warming my arm through my jacket.  Mmmmm, felt good, really good.

And then I had it.  The first great idea of the year.

A Gratitude Journal.

I will journal one thing everyday for the year.  Something that I am grateful for, or  something that makes me smile, or something wonderful that happened that day, you get the idea.  The simpler the pleasure the better.

And wouldn't it be cool to do it for the whole year, 366 (this is a leap year) days of gratitude? 

A year of Gratitude.  I'm in.

Every night before I go to sleep I've journaled.  The first entry is something like "The early morning sun warming me".   Second entry was how it made me smile when I saw the last 4 leaves hanging on a tree dancing back and forth in the wind.  After a few days it got a little harder.  It can only be all sunshiny and leaf dancy for so long.  I am definitely aggravated by things throughout the day more often than greatful. 

Like the cop that ran a red light at the intersection just as my light turned green, and she didn't have lights or sirens on, and she did it just so she could pull someone over on a traffic violation.  Aggravated me cause she put me in danger, luckily I was super alert and had noticed her when she approached the intersection.  I was so peeved that she would put me in danger.  She never even looked my way.  But that doesn't fall into the "Gratitude" category....so I can't write about that.

And then the very next morning the very same cop, made a u turn in the middle of the road right in front of me, causing me to brake to avoid hitting her, again pulling someone over on a traffic violation.  I would totally call the watch commander and complain, but I wouldn't want to become her next target.  And that didn't fall into the "Gratitude" category either, so I'm not writing about that either....

The beauty of "A Year Of Gratitude" is that it causes me to be aware through out the day of the good things.  I pay less attention to the aggravating things in the process.  This may end up being one of my best ideas ever.  And how cool at the end of the year to have a journal full of good things.

Happy New Year

PS, almost forgot, Tamara has jumped on the bloggin toboggan.  She has started the New Year doing boot camp and she's sharing all the fun here:  http://tamaragriffiths.blogspot.com/

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