Lines and circles

I have never been a fan of straight lines.  I am not a believer in the linear philosophy of life and death, or manifested beginnings and endings.  I see life more as a circle, a continuous loop of trials and error, triumphs and defeats, growth and regression.  We never really know exactly where we are in orbit, only that we will continue to spin, sometime by our own will, sometimes by undeniable gravitational force, known to me as a higher power.

So every year as people say good-bye to one year and all their bad habits and displeasures and make resolutions, I am always a little confused as why a calendar month makes all that much of a difference.  From my past and others, I have learned not to put much stock in New Year's Resolutions.  But that being said, I do believe in goal setting and reflection and think any time is a good time to pause and decide how we want our energy to propell us in orbit.  Here's what I learned in my 2013 loop:

1.  Nothing can make you feel more like a grown up than a death of a parent.

2.  Motherhood is incredibley joyous and weighted with a burden of constant guilt.

3.  Movement is freedom.

4.  There is nothing more important than the connection of family and friends.

5.  We are constantly having to reinvent ourselves and challenge our systems of belief.

Goals:

1.  Run a 5K.

2.  Make it to Maine to celebrate a good friends 40th birthday.

3.  Improve my health.

4.  Successfully transition Josslyn into pre-school.

5.  Research my family history.

I'm sure I will have new lessons and new goals, perhaps as early as tomorrow.  We don't begin and end with a changing of a month or year, but we do adjust for the seasons of our life and each winter and time in the sun serves a purpose.  Sometimes we learn our first time around, other times it takes several rotations before we even know there is a lesson to be learned.  Round and round we go, where we stop, no one knows.