Centered.

"New Year; new you" is not how I roll. I am not about reinventing myself, or trying to adhere to strict diets, or protocols, or lifestyles as a way to start a new year. Been there. Done that. It doesn't work.

What I am about is intention. I see the new year as a chance to re-examine, re-configure, and re-focus. As I re-examined my goals for last year, I see that I had to many. I didn't make big goals, but I made a lot of little, very specific goals. I accomplished a lot of them, but not all of them. That leads me to see that this year, I need to simplify, again. There is nothing wrong with goals, but I need to be able to accomplish them.

Once again this year, I need to reconfigure to focus on what matters. We've had life changes, major budget expenditures, illness and more this past year. These lead us to need to regroup and perhaps do things differently.

I particularly want to re-focus. I don't think I have lost my center per se, so much as focused on too many things that did not matter as much as I thought they did. Everything tends to be urgent and/or a crisis for me. My husband often reminds me that it is not. That does not always help in the moment, though. What I need is to have both a larger perspective and a smaller focus. I need to be able to accommodate more of the unexpected while remaining tied to what matters. Because what matters is what keeps me centered. When I am centered, I believe I am of more use to God, others, and even myself.

So on that note, here's to a more centered 2023, and perhaps a few more blog posts along that topic.

Happy New Year!