2012

Another year over...

Here's what I liked about 2012. (Here's what I didn't like about 2012.):
* Meeting Penny. (People have the wrong idea about pit bulls.)
* Bailey's graduation. (I miss Bailey.)
* M's career excellence and accomplishments. (My temporary career setbacks.)
* My relationship with my parents. (My relationship with C and J.)
* Moving to New England. (The actual move was scary and hard.)
* The election. (The leadup to the election.)
* The SCOTUS decision on ACA -- thanks Justice Roberts. (Scalia and Thomas.)
* Parting with some Internet "friends." (Parting with some Internet "friends.")
* Seeing Radiohead and My Morning Jacket perform. (Only seeing them once.)
* Yale at Harvard. (Bobby Petrino and aftermath.)
* My first time to substitute teach. (Newtown happening the same week.)
* Optimism about career prospects here. (Pessimism about career prospects there.)
* Paying down debt, being smarter with money. (Accruing debt in the move.)
* Anne Shelley. (Not enough people are like her.)
* Wayne Ryder. (Not enough bosses are like him.)
* Johnny Football. (Josh Hamilton. Tony Romo. Lamar Odom.)
* Liz Warren and Tammy Duckworth. (Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock.)
* The "47 percent." (That other 47 percent.)
* Togetherness. (Divisiveness.)
* Writing more often. (Not feeling always good at it.)
* Snow! (Shoveling snow.)
* Losing some weight. (Needing to lose some weight.)


Here's what I hated about 2012:
* Aurora. The Sikh Temple. Newtown
* The NRA and other gun nuts' response to Aurora. The Sikh Temple. Newtown.
* Sandy and Sandy Hook. Bad year for Sandys.


I have great hope for 2013. It's been said that no matter your circumstances, you can always choose to have a positive attitude. Sometimes I have a very negative attitude, but I feel that the coming year will be a great one. That isn't to say that I personally, or us as a nation, or as citizens of this planet, won't have difficult days and challenges ahead. We surely will.

But each difficulty provides a chance to weigh everything we've experienced and learned up to this point and choose solutions. Usually, there will be many paths you can take. And you may not take the best one. I hope you do. Regardless, you've got to keep pushing.

The slate is clean. What will you make of it?