It's already January 9th, but I'm still waiting for my New Year's motivation to kick in so I can start tackling those resolutions. I'm not a big resolution maker. Sure, I always look forward to the new year with the thought of starting fresh, trying something new, attempting to establish a good habit into my routine. But I rarely deliberately made a public statement to verbalize the changes I want to make.

            I think that's because I try to make a resolution every day throughout the year--sometimes succesfully, often times not. Although I don't truly consider myself to be an optimist all the time, I still manage to wake up most days with the sense that I've been given yet another chance to start over.

            As I tackle my second year in a row of writing two novels while promoting two more--all in the space of twelve little months--I find myself looking at resolutions a little more seriously. I really, really need more sleep. If I could just manage to be in bed with lights out by 11:00 I'd be a lot happier (and so would my family!). If I learned to be more gentle on myself when I fail at getting to the bottom of my to-do list. If I could believe that it's really okay to take a break--an hour, a day, a whole month. If I could be less shy about singing in public. Oh, wait, that's something for another blog entirely...

            As I face a challenging 2009--as do we all, in more ways than one--I realize that the biggest gift I can give myself is the realization that I have the power within me to change. That I can do things differently. That I can forgive myself if I fail. And that when I wake up tomorrow morning, it's a whole new chance to try again.

            So Happy New Year. May each of your days be filled with possibilities.