Happy New Year!

One of my favorite times of the year is between Christmas and New Year's Day.  Like many, my thoughts are filled with reflection of the ending year and anticipation for the new year ahead.  I have always been a planner and I like the notion of making "resolutions".  This year, however, rather than a traditional approach of listing out things I want to do, change or start, I am selecting a word.  At first, I wasn't sure if I liked this idea since brevity is not usually my strong suit. ;)  I didn't know how I could appropriately encompass all I wish, hope and desire for the new year in one single word.  How can anything be covered in just one word?!

Much to my surprise, my word came to me yesterday during a peaceful, morning walk at a local park near my house.  The air was crisp and filled with birds singing, the perfect place for some thinking and reflecting.  After awhile, I realized the thing I loathe the most is feeling like life is flashing before my eyes, that weeks pass and I don't seem to even notice the difference as everything runs into the next thing.  My thoughts led me to the perfect word...intention.

This year, I am committing to living with intention.

Simply put, intention is defined as a determination to act in a certain way.  I want to be present in my life, I want to be awake and active and aware.  I want to set forth with a purposeful step each and every moment of my life.  I don't want to take this awesome and incredibly fragile gift of life for granted because I was too busy rushing from this to that, ticking off a to do list.  Yes, those things still need to be done, but I can do them with purpose so I can soak up every experience.  So then, in a year from today, I can look back confidently and know that I took every advantage of my life.  That I was determined and focused and grateful and present for every single moment regardless of success or failure.

My wish for you is to have peace, health and happiness in 2013.  If you are making any type of resolution(s), creating an action statement or choosing a word to guide you this year, I would love to hear about it!  If you feel so inclined, please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.  He is rich who owns the day, an no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.  
Finish every day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt, crept in.  Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.  
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.