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Happy New Year

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions. If I really want to change something about myself or my life, why what until January 1st to set goals for myself? It doesn't matter to me if it's January 1st, April 15th, July 4th, or December 26th... I just set goals and go for them!

Instead, I prefer to choose an over-reaching theme for the year. This suits me better because there's no success or failure benchmarks to meet; it's something I keep in mind to help guide me as I tackle the challenges and opportunities that come my way.

2006 was my "Year of Adventure."

2007 was my "Year of Change."

2008 was my "Year of Success."

What will 2009 be?

I've chosen to designate 2009 as a "Year of Balance" for myself. Like everyone, there's good things and bad things in my life; putting the balance back into my life again will empower me to better appreciate the good and deal with the bad more productively.

So, it was very fitting the other day when I saw this beautiful video featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. The site's goal is to present images, videos and descriptions to inspire people to learn more about astronomy, though I found this particular video inspiring in a different way.

In the short 4-minutes or so that it took to watch the video, I found myself pondering the beauty of nature that surrounds us, and how sad it is that so many of us never appreciate it because we're too busy going about our daily lives. I then found myself thinking about what things in life are truly important, and what I should focus on as I live my life.

Each day I will work and be productive, I will play and relax, I will laugh, love, and enjoy the company of friends, and I will find new things in my life deserving of my appreciation.



Happy New Year; I wish you and all your loved ones the best in 2009.

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