Simple Moments: January 2009

Yes, New Year's and all of its celebrations are over. January 1st is now two weeks behind us and in its place has come the frigid cold of winter. In the past few weeks I've seen all the sales on fitness clothes and equipment as people prepare their New Year's Resolutions to "lose weight" and "FINALLY get in shape". By February, however, I am confident that those same people will be splurging on Valentine's Day chocolates and cleaning the dust off of their "must have get-in-shape-faster-than-ever" machines. I've been thinking of those resolutions and those people and while getting in shape is always a good thing, I want my resolutions and goals for the year ahead to stand for something more. So, instead of calling them resolutions and instead of pledging to lose weight with the rest of the world, I have decided to skip the usuals, enjoy the Valentine's chocolates guilt free, and set some goals and things I would like to focus on this year. Here are a few that I've been thinking of:
1. I want to live on less. Less money, less stuff, less everything. Just less. I think this will be a good thing all around as I try to simplify my life and get back to focusing on the things that really matter to me. Most of those things, I've learned, don't involve money or stuff at all. Instead, they involve time and people and energy. I want more of those things and less of the others.
2. I want to become a more aware citizen of the world. I want to know about war in Africa and the Middle East and how it is effecting me and my life. I want to feel for people suffering all around the world and I want to be equipped with the knowledge to do something about it. It seems that educating yourself is the only way to begin to understand the world as well as to contribute to it and this year I'd like to be a better contributor and more engaged citizen of this country and the rest of the world.
3. I want to volunteer more. Throughout college I was given so many opportunities to volunteer and give back to the community. Whether it was on my summer break, part of my studies, or through a club or group I was involved in, it seems I was always finding ways to help the people around me. In the past year or so my volunteering experience has dwindled and with it so has some of my fulfillment. I want that back. So, this year, I'm aiming to find a way to volunteer and spend some of my free time giving back to the community and the world.
4. I want to spend more time loving unconditionally. You hear about unconditional love all the time: it's preached at you from every church pulpit on Sunday morning's; it's shouted at you from the homeless person begging you for change as you stride past him trying not to look; it's shown to you through that person you expect to be by your side all throughout your life no matter how ugly your insides turn. Unconditional love. It's the root of so many things in our lives yet it is nearly impossible to find. I don't see it in churches or in relationships or in communities. I don't read about it in my books or see it on the 6 o'clock news. Instead, we look at people for their differences and we don't love them even though we may want to. And we don't give things without expecting nothing in return. We expect, at the least, a smile or a thank you. But why? We don't need those things, those words, to make our deed worth doing. We just need to do it. Thats it. The end. So, I'm striving to do more loving and less judging, to give without a single expectation or acknowledgement. I'll find a way. After all "in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."
5. I want to spend less on Corporate America and more on local business. I was driving around Metro-Detroit not long ago and noticed that they had built a Kohl's department store directly in front of a near-closing Ford plant and I paused for a moment, looked at the site and said to myself "this is Corporate America at its finest." The truth is, there is not much that I need in my life that I can't get at a local store. I don't need to go to Kohl's, even if it may save me a few dollars. Plus, since I'm hoping to live on less hopefully I'll be buying less anyways!
6. I want to learn from my entertainment. I spend so much time watching silly television shows and reading Women's Magazines that I don't get anything out of. This year, I'm striving to watch movies and read books and participate in discussions that I can learn and grow from. If I am going to spend time reading and watching movies I want them to be things that force me to ask questions about the world and help me to grow and think beyond myself. I'm sure I'll still sneak in some stupid reality TV show, but hopefully just a lot less!

Some smaller goals that I have this year:
1. I want to run everyday
2. I want to learn a new hobby
3. I want to cook more and learn to cook more things

I'm sure there is more but there is a quick little snippet of what I hope to fill my life with in 2009!

Christmas has come and gone and we have welcomed 2009 with high hopes clouded by great uncertainties. For me, this past month has been full of activities and taking a much needed break from work to spend time doing things that I love with those that I care about most. I am finding that words are in short supply as I reflect on the end of 2008 so I will leave you instead with lots of pictures: