New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!

2014 was one of my most favorite years yet, despite all of it's challenges.  It wasn't as fun as grad school, but then, that was a unique kind of crazy/awesome.

Last year's resolution was a 99.5% success:  no eating frozen meals for lunch anymore.  I think I was forced to do that one day when I didn't have anything else in the house.

2015 Resolutions:

• Bring my Ravelry project list up to 200 total (with an 85% completion rate).

• Live out Samwise Gamgee's words of wisdom.

One thing at a time, here...

If you have a Ravelry login, you can view my project page.  Currently, I'm sitting at 124 projects total, with 17 incomplete projects.  If my math brain is awake, that's a 86.3% completion rate, but I know how my procrastination brain works.  Maintaining an 85% completion rate will not be a piece of cake.

Also, that's about 7 finished projects a month.  It could be doable...except for my attention span.  I like doing new patterns...not repeating the same ones over and over.  So...we'll see how that goes!

I'll be sharing some new projects this week and next week that I did over Christmas break, so stay tuned!

And now, back to Samwise...

“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”

It's no secret that J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my favorite authors. But even if he wasn't, this quote remains applicable for everyday life.  That's my primary resolution this year. Not as a hobbit lass, or a lady of Rohan, or even the redneck elf Keywen.

As me.

Mr. Tolkien had it the right way around. And I want to remember that this year.

When the challenges I faced seem to overcome me, I thought I couldn't fight. But I was not created to be a victim.

Even if I can't attack my challenges with a sword, or defeat them with my pen, I can always choose to fight back.

So this year I am striving to make it to the days when the sun shines out the clearer and brighter because the shadow has been driven back. It may come again, but every time I defeat it I am that much stronger.

I was not made to give up. I was made to try again.

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" - Mary Anne Radmacher