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A Fresh Start

A fresh start is aided by good food, like my in-laws cook up in spicy Chinese form
A New Year's resolution is a fun promise to break.  It feels good to make one, and the expectant mood of great things for the new year allows everyone to fool themselves into believing that some hoped-for aspiration will become reality.  This mood allows us to believe that life will be different somehow, and it will be good and better since a triumph over will, fear of failure, or some other impediment is just around the corner.

More often, a resolution takes years to accomplish.  For instance, my goal of achieving 100 entries in 2012 (which I did ultimately accomplish) was five years in the making.  A quick search through my blog timeline produced reference to a "fresh start" in several entries (ie. jump-starting a regular writing schedule) across 2007, 2009, and 2012, with the outcome a sputter of output.  It was not until this past year that journaling ensued, and even then, at a pretty big struggle to get going in the second half of the year.

And now I am here, writing another blog entry titled a fresh start.  But somehow, it does really feel different this year.  Not because I set another goal for another 100 entries for the year, but because I feel like the creative juices are flowing again.  Not since writing a diary for my MBA class in 2005 or scribbling poetry back in 2003 as a heady consultant on expense account in NYC do I feel energized to explore words and contexts and meanings.  I suppose eventually we find ourselves entangled in our own interests and callings, but it can take awhile - and many fresh starts along the way.

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