I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful beautiful life

Why is it that at the end of the year we feel obligated to review our year? Why is it only now that we are concerned with how we're living? It seems we should be "concerned" the entire year. And maybe we are, but we just don't say it or really truly think about it.

2007 was a year to be sure. Like everyone, I had ups and downs. My life is like a roller coaster. To quote the song from the title, "The ups and downs and crazy turns along the way. It'll throw you off if you don't hold on tight. You can't really smile until you've shed some tears, I could die today or I might live on for years." If it wasn't so topservy turvey would we even know we were truly living?

I don't do resolutions much. I find that it's generally just setting myself up to fail, and well, I just don't need that. Instead, I like to think of a theme. Last year I didn't really solidify a theme so I just lived. Not sure yet if it was all that different from when I do have a theme, but with a theme it helps keep me focused.

This year's theme: Drum roll please.

LIVE IT! LOVE IT! LEAVE IT!

It came to me last night while I was reading my Christmas letters from people. I thought about what it was about life that really holds people back.

LIVE IT! - Instead of being all wordy and talking about doing things. Do them. Don't wait for anyone to be available to do the things you want (or wait for the weather to be perfect), just go out and do it. And I think it goes without saying that living it includes new adventures. New things I've not done before, but have wanted to.

LOVE IT! - I have a lot of things I'm passionate about. Some I've jumped in full tilt and have embraced all there is (i.e. cooking). Some things I've only have mastered and feel I just need to work a bit more to really see my passion come to life (i.e. photography). And finally, there are some things I do that I question almost every time I do them as to WHY I'm doing them - sometimes it seems silly (i.e. scrapbooking) and yet I love it. So enough of that. If I love it, I will learn it, study it, live it. (see #1).

LEAVE IT! - We all have it. Baggage. For some reasons there are things I have yet to be able to let go of. I'm unsure if these things are holding me back, but I suspect they might be. So this year, I'm going to focus on leaving things. Letting things go. (i.e. XXXcrush, friends who no longer exist). Not having to understand why things happen, but to just accept that they happened for a reason, and move on. (See #1 and #2 above).

And with that, I say look out 2008. So I lift a cup of cheer for Auld Langs Syne (which I think means "days gone by and says we will always remember them").