rough start

Yesterday, I ate a traditional Southern New Year's meal:  Collard greens (dollars), black-eyed peas (coins=luck), corn bread (gold), and pork (supposedly, pigs are the one animal that can't walk backwards-- aren't they considered really smart too?  hmm...).  The more you eat, the better your luck is.  I skipped lunch so I could eat two helpings of everything!!!

However, I did not succumb to the tradition of New Year's resolutions. The only resolution I make is not to go to a gym in January. I think they're silly because the things I need to work on are going to take the rest of my lifetime.  However, I'm trying to become a better listener.  There was actually a class on listening one summer at Regent.  My friend Tim took it; he graciously laughed at most of my jokes about it.  But, now I think at a point in my maturity (intellectual, emotional, and spiritual) where I would benefit from that class... instead of see it as joke fodder.

I decided to go kayaking on January 1st would be a brilliant way to kick off the new year. I made this decision without checking the weather forecast.  It rained... and, apparently, I'm not an avid enough outdoorswoman.  I went and got a makeover at a store-- if you can't kayak, you might as well play with makeup.

Today a belt in my car broke while I was driving.  I called my mechanic, and he told me he'd look at it.   He fixed it.  I was super glad it happened this afternoon instead of 9:30 pm on my drive home on the interstate.  

I think there's a lot of room for improvement in 2013-- from last year.  I sent a job application last night.  I'm going on a date with a new guy tomorrow.  Here's to possibility!

Here are the two quotations that I'm commonplacing for the new year.  I found them comforting and convicting:

I don’t fear that at the end God will ask why I wasn’t Moses (great leader) or Thomas Aquinas (towering intellect), but why I wasn’t myself.  -Miroslav Volf

"We have this idea that everyone should be...totally whole, totally together spiritually, and totally fulfilled. That is a myth. In reality, our lack of fulfillment is the most precious gift we have. It is the source of our passion, our creativity, our search for God. All the best of life comes out of our human yearning - our not being satisfied...." -Gerald Mays, quoted in "Water in My Soul" by Luci Shaw.


(I took the pictures on January 29th, 2012 on my lunch break.)