Where's My Paintbrush?

“Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts. You have to remember this when you find yourself at the beginning.” Sandra Bullock

I have always loved beginnings. I delight in the start of a new month, the start of a new week, the start of a new year. I get a kick out of a fresh start. I adore mornings. Morning feels like taking a fresh canvas of time and deciding what I will paint on it.

I don’t really do New Years Resolutions, instead I make plans. This year I plan to enjoy myself more. I intend to love more. I plan to connect more. I intend to take better care of myself and my glorious body. I plan to put the disappointments of yesterday behind me and believe in the promise of tomorrow.

This year, I will choose carefully how to spend my gift of time. I will not have time for judging other or for criticism. I will not have time for discouragement or negative thoughts. I will choose to move on when others disappoint me. I will choose forgiveness.

I plan to love myself more completely. I choose to believe in myself and to appreciate my uniqueness. I don’t have to be perfect. I can love myself as I am.

I am planning to see more sunsets, more rainbows, more waterfalls. I am planning to trust more, to give more, to dance more. I am planning to see more, to hear more, to live more.

Life is a curious mix of beginnings, middles, and endings. Today’s beginning signals an end to yesterday. Today is the middle of something. In the middle lie some of Life’s harder choices. Persistence and stamina pay off in the middle, not the end. Today is a beginning, middle, and end. Today brings promise, fueled by choice.

Shall we not embrace the promise? Shall we not believe in choice?

I believe. It’s a New Year. What will I paint on this canvas?

Happy 2011.

Linda Garner