Belated New Year’s Resolution – 2012

This is my first entry of 2012 and not surprisingly perhaps I find myself looking back over the past year.  I have come to the conclusion that I am basically the same person at the beginning of this year as I was at the beginning of the past year. In fact I can look even further back and realize that I have not done much growing. To put it another way and probably more accurately I have let life happen for a long time. I have not been an active participant , for the most part, in my own life. I know that there are many things not in my control and so I don’t worry about those things….much anyway. However, there are many things that I can control but even in those areas I have tended to be more passive than active.

This year I have broken my resolution to not make any more resolutions and have resolved that I will be an active participant in my life and that I will have grown as a person noticeably by the end of this year. I have already taken steps toward this goal. I have joined the Writers” Community of Durham Region and have attended the first monthly breakfast meeting. This may not seem like a big step but it is something out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed it nevertheless. I’m not sure where else this resolution or  goal or promise to myself will take me but at the moment it feels like it is going to be a good year.

Next year at this time I will write another blog and I’ll let you know how it went> I bet I am not alone so perhaps some of you will join me on this journey and we can encourage  and keep each other motivated.

Happy New Year.

Christmas 2011

It’s Christmas in four days and I don’t feel the least bit in the Christmas mood. I’m not sure what the Christmas mood is but I know I”m not feeling it yet. I suppose it’s the feeling portrayed in a Normal Rockwell print or the feelings that you get when you’re nostalgic about childhood Christmases. I don’t know why I’m not feeling Christmasy. Maybe it’s the kids getting older and some of the Christmas morning wonder is gone or maybe life is just getting in the way.

As I think about Christmas and feelings, which I don’t do often, I remember listening to a radio program on which a pastor  told a story about a young man who had come to see him with a marriage problem. The young man told the pastor that he didn’t love his wife anymore and wondered  what should he do. The pastor’s response to the young man, “go home and love your wife” .  Love is more than a feeling it is a choice so maybe that’s how I need to see Christmas. This year I choose  Christmas with or without the warm fuzzy feeling!

When I strip away all of the traditions of Christmas, the decorations, the music, the food, the presents  and even family, what am I left with? I am left with a baby born to a young Jewish girl two thousand years ago. He wasn’t just any baby he was and is Messiah. He was God in  flesh and bone.  The name that means the most to me is Emmanuel or God with us. For me that sums up what Christmas is. It is God with us and that’s what I will focus on this Christmas. I may not ever have the Christmas feeling this year but when I look at my little nativity scene I will remember why we celebrate and that will be more than enough for me this year.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

My First Entry

This is the first entry to my blog. 

I have imagined myself as a writer since I was a teenager but imagining is as far as I have ever gotten other than essays, business correspondence and emails.  I recently completed a creative writing course at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario which was step one in my quest to become a professional writer. This blog is step two. I figure that even if I can’t get something written on a current writing project I can at least write something down on my blog even if it’s just to say that I am having trouble writing.

I will probably not have a specific theme or subject to my blog. It will most likely be a kind of daily journal which those of you who read it may or may not find interesting. I can say a couple of things for certain though. I will never  refer to myself as a “blogger”. I am a writer who happens to have a blog. I will also never consider myself  part of the “blogosphere” and that is the last time you will ever see that word in any of  my blog entries.

Actually what this blog is all about is just what the tagline says — IT’S ABOUT WRITING.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate the investment of your time.