New Year — New Dreams

Every year I say I'm going to do better, be better, feel better but somehow I always feel like I've missed the goal. I've never really been able to keep a single New Year's resolution past the first three months of the year either. So why do we make goals in the first place? Why do we dream of things going our way when they usually don't?

Because without a dream or a goal in our lives, we merely exist with nothing to look forward to. Why go out of our way to do something if it doesn't mean anything? Even animals have goals. I don't know if they have dreams like humans, but they strive to find the best food, the safest place to have their young and the strongest male to breed their young.

Humans go beyond that now. Most of us have the necessities like a roof over our heads and food on the table. So now we look for new things to strive for, new goals to reach. The common ones are to lose weight, get healthier, organize our lives better, stop smoking or drinking.

Maybe those of us who are goal-challenged in life should make easier goals that we can achieve so we feel better about the accomplishment. Then we can set a slightly higher goal and one day, we'll meet the big one we had wanted all along. Constantly failing day after day and year after year only creates a rut that we can't get out of. We feel bad about ourselves and begin to believe that we can never do better at all. I think it would be better to make no goals than to set ourselves up to constantly fail.

What are some easier goals that would help us to feel better about ourselves?
     Donate a book to a library.
     Read the paper or a short story to a shut in
     Put the garbage can back from the street for the elderly
     Buy a few five dollar Starbuck's cards and give them to random
     people you meet.
     Give someone a flower you don't know.

Funny how doing things for others makes me feel good about myself. I really enjoy seeing the surprised smile. It warms my heart and takes away a little of the disappointment I feel in myself.

Do yourself and someone else a good deed and pass on a smile in this 2015 New Year. I'm going to ask you about it when the year is almost over. Don't disappointment me.  I'm watching you!





Marla Monroe

www.marlamonroe.com

 

Wow! Already December and I Haven't Even Put Away October Yet!

Hmmm. How did I let this happen? December sort of snuck up on me. I never saw it coming. I can't even remember November, except for the yummy dressing the other day. Days fly by pulling the entire month with them. Before we know it, an entire year is gone again. What do we have to show for it?

I have about 14 books and two short stories to show for the year, but what about life points? You know, the things that really matter. I've spent quality time with my brother and his family several times this past year. Could I have spent more time with them? Yeah. I could have.

I've spent some wonderful days with my parents this year. I love having them here with me. Not only are they fun to be with and help me in so many ways, but watching just how much they love each other keeps the love alive in my heart, too. I wish I'd spent more time with them earlier in the year instead of some of the trips I took. I didn't realize just how quickly things change.

I refuse to regret anything because it adds to who I am, but I can feel sad for some of the opportunities I've missed or blown off; for the time I wasted when I should have been writing spending time with friends and family; for decisions I've made that weren't all that smart.

So, looking ahead, I plan to do things a little differently this coming year. I did this last year and the year before. No matter how many times I do this, I always end up missing something I should have seen coming.

So for the end of 2014 as it tops the hill on its way down, don't have regrets, don't think the what ifs. Spend some time thinking about what you want out of life for next year and then make plans on how to get there. You may not get there the first time you try, but if you keep regrouping and looking at where you got off track, you will eventually get to where you are supposed to be.

I'm going to introduce whoever out there is reading this to what hope looks like to me right now. Her name is Maggie and she's a kitten. When I found her, she was about 4 or 5 weeks old and entirely different than what she looks like now.

 

 

 

 



Isn't she cute? A tiny ball of fur and great big eyes. She was such a sweet kitty who had a rough start in life. Something had tried to eat her and she had a massive abscess from one side of her neck through to just above her chest. We got that all cleaned up and she turned into a whirlwind of energy after that.

Now she is about 4 months old and she looks so much different than she did.

Yep, that's her tongue sticking out.

 

 

So where am I going with all of this? This hope I was talking about? Well, she brought hope into our house when she came to live with us. My mom took one look at her and smiled—really smiled for the first time in a long time. Now the house revolves around Maggie or "my baby" as mom refers to her. Seeing that

smile and how the kitten keeps her engaged and happy is seeing hope reflected in my mom's eyes. Taking care of the kitten gives her one more reason to get up each morning and brave the pain and near blindness that colors her world grey. Only now, there is a streak of color that captivates her each day and I call it Hope.

 

Marla