who knows where the time goes

Happy New Year!

I don't know about anybody else, but I am so excited that it's a Brand New Year. I'm particularly abuzz about 2008 because I am learning how to co-create the lifestyle I want for myself. I fully expect wondrous manifestations this year. '07 wasn't easy, but its challenges have gone a long way in teaching me where my life's blood comes from. It also showed me, when I really looked at it, that I am already standing so close to where I want to be.

I'm starting off this year in grand style, with a return here to my much loved but sometime neglected blog. I've missed this space. I don't think I fully realized how much until I read Adrienne's wonderful post yesterday. When I did, I wished I'd taken greater advantage of illustrating and documenting my own year. In that spirit, here I am. I'd like to be able to do my own "best of" at the end of this year. It's important to see this life from as many angles and as clearly as possible. Otherwise, who does know where the time goes?

I have some resolutions, mostly made up right here on the spot:

1) Hide less. Stop treating myself -- my words, my actions, my thoughts -- like I'm some dirty secret.

2) Speak well of others, or don't speak of others at all. If there is any MLL (Major Life Lesson) I learned in '07 it is that we are all doing the best we can. Sometimes another person's best just might suck eggs as far as I'm concerned. It's okay, because my best might look pretty shitty to someone else.

3) Make (more) things with wild(er) abandonment. Sometimes I'm a bit reluctant to express how much I love making things, except to people who love making things with equal fervor. I feel freaky, over-the-top, cr-AY-zay about my love of handwork (see resolution #1), and so what? Feelings are only feelings. What basis do they have in reality anyway? As long as I keep knitting and sewing and don't let the feelings override what I do, I'm living right.

4) Establish a spending plan. Stick to it. Pay off all my debt except my student loans by my birthday (May 16). I guess this could be called a hard resolution. Not hard as in difficult. Hard as in measurable in a tangible medium, like, say, my FICO score.

5) Love people regardless. I'll have more time for this if I'm not badmouthing them. (See resolution #2.)

6) At least one time a day, look up. Drop everything. Look up, look around. See.

Over the last few months when I've thought about posting, the one thing I kept wanting to post was this, my favorite FO of 2007:

I made it for Miss Gracie, who else, who believe it or not is now 1 and wears pigtails. It is no technical feat, but it sure is the sweetest thing. I am thinking of making one for myself, one to hang on the wall and look at. That's how much I love a little pinafore.

Maybe I'll make it sooner rather than later because I already know that 2008 is all about this kind of sweetness -- making it, living it, being grateful for it.