Page One, Chapter One!

“ We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential.” Ellen Goodman

The start of each New Year almost always leads people to review their lives in the year that was. Yet sometimes we are too engrossed looking back on the not so good things we did in the past year that need to be altered or modified and we tend to overlook the opportunities ahead. We spend so much effort feeling sorry for projects we should have started, work we should have finished, people we should have loved more, friends we should have visited and words we should have said.

The trouble with some people today is that they are too troubled thinking of things that should have been, spill so much tears for people who have walked out on them, spend hours grunting on broken relationships and waste days blaming themselves for all these miseries. There is nothing more we can do about all these things that have passed, neither remorse nor self-blame can reverse them and self pity can only aggravate the pain.

As we bid goodbye to each year, let us learn not to linger on the sorrows and pains, rather, let us start every year in our lives looking at new things, new blessings, new love, new opportunities.

For everyone, I would like to share some New Year Reminders from George Carlin that would surely give you a better year ahead!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is God & ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't send this to at least 8 people.... who cares?