booandbunny

Oh smell the promise of something new! We as Americans love new things. Why should a new year be any
different? The smoothing of the crease in that freshly unwrapped calendar … the way it needs time to hang out
and flatten a bit on the wall … the blank slate of the unknown, the unexpected and the unwanted converging with
the anticipated, the announced and the annoying routine. I love this time of year … until it comes time to take the
decorations down. That always brings a bump of blue to an otherwise bright orange season.

But this year my resolutions are new and fresh, too. This year I have tangible goals and a desire to reach them.
This year I know going in that yes, I can get off my butt and exercise regularly and, yes, it does make a difference
in my size. But, more than that, it makes a huge difference in how I FeeL! I love SpongeBob,
so I quote him here: “I’m ready!”

This year I have something else, too. Something I haven’t had in a very long time. It was the big change in my life
in 2006 and feeling it’s warmth around me I know there’s no reason not to chase some of the goals that might seem
unrealistic and unattainable. 

It’s a group of girlfriends. It started here when I found other women with similar interests, frustrations and desires
as my own. It started as I wandered these pages and realized, as so many of us have typed WE ARE NOT ALONE.
Learning this here made me look at the women I see regularly in a new way, helped me open up, maybe, in a way
I had been unwilling to attempt in all these years. Only two other times in my life have I had a group of women I
enjoyed spending time with. Senior year of high school there was a gang of seven of us who ran together …
one of them, my very best friend, my maid of honor, is still with me today. Senior year of college there were four of
us who lived together at journalism school. Those three women stood up to my wedding, too, and we still are connected.
That is a rare gift.

But since the early ’90s, when life scattered us from coast to coast (and beyond at times), I’ve not known that fun
that comes with a bunch of girlfriends getting together. I’ve savored moments with a special friend, the comfort of
knowing her well enough to invite her for dinner with my family and open the door in bare feet. But that slumber-
party mentality hasn’t crept into my life until now. Sometimes you don’t realize what you’re missing until you’ve
found it. And starting a new year with this new sense of support and understanding has given me an energy I don’t
totally understand. But I’m going to do my best to harness it and believe in myself as much as my husband believes
in me. And that would really be something new!

Here’s to the unexpected … the anticipated … the promise of the blank squares of a new calendar … the blocks
with which we’ll build our New Year.

// posted by HoBess @ 1/02/2007 12:30:00 PM