Happy New Year 2016

Happy new year my friends, the year is now 2016 which seems a little crazy to me, we really are living in the future aren’t we? I hope you all had a wonderful 2015, yet I hope even more for a joyful 2016. My prayer is that it will be a year of peace, healing & blessing for all.

2015 was an interesting year for me personally, a year rather filled with extremes, I had some truly wonderful experiences such as traveling back to England with my family, making many new friends in my gaming world, seeing a new Star Wars movie that was actually good 😉 There were also some desperately difficult times, times of loss, times of grief.

I feel like at some point I subconsciously switched off, I went into survival mode, the place I escaped form years back, to where feeling is limited. On the outside it might seem like a good thing, but it is not, it is a dark and dangerous place. To be your best you must be fully willing to feel and address every experience, good or bad, you also must be able to find the silver lining. There is always one there, even in the worst times like losing a loved one, or being on a planet with people that would willingly kill innocent civilians enjoying their Friday night.

I don’t do New years resolutions, I really have never understood the point, January 1st is no different to May 17th, other than most people don’t have to work. The bold declaration in public of how you are going to do XYZ this year & be whatever you feel like you should be, it never made much sense to me. Yet this year, the timing is oddly right for change, right for growth. Publicly declaring something means little if no-one holds you accountable for it though. So I guess you now have my permission, to call me out this year if you see me failing in one of the areas I am about to share with you, although you really should be relevant to that area to do so.

Seeing as we are on the blog I’ll start with that, I want to get back into writing, not just occasionally, but frequently. I still have no aspirations to do anything with it other than pollute the internet with my ramblings. However my ramblings in whatever format they take are a good thing, heck some incredibly kind people with phenomenal taste actually read and like them. The real reason I want to get back into writing is basically that same thing that got me started in the first place. I want and need to get more in touch with the inner workings of my mind and my feelings. I also really want to try and flex those creative muscles, it is truly enjoyable for me to create art no matter what form it takes, poetry, music, blog articles. When I do these things, I am a better person, a better husband, a better father. When I am in touch with my true self, the create sensitive, real me, the world makes more sense to me, I see things differently, notice things that i would otherwise ignore. It is just better.

That’s of my plan (resolution) to take better care of myself mentally for the coming year. Other, more traditional “resolutions” for this year for me shall include taking better care of myself physically. I didn’t do too terribly bad with this in 2015, until the last 2 months, when I apparently decided that all bets were off & indulged in everything tasty I saw. Its starting to show on the scales now & in how I feel. No big deal, I will eat healthy, work out a bunch & maybe even actually get on my bicycle this year.

Lastly & this may be the most ambitious, yet hardest to measure. I am going to try and move a little slower this year, do more by doing less, take / make the time to be more attentive to the most important people in my life (my wife and child), make the time to do the things I truly love, like music. I am also going to try and balance things a little better, maybe a little less gaming & a little more reading. Make time to invest in relationships that have been neglected last year due to other responsibilities.

Yes, my goal for 2016 is pretty much just like every other cliched resolution you will probably hear this year. My goal is to be better, be a better version of my so that hopefully those around me will enjoy me more & as a result, maybe I will enjoy 2016 a little more than 2015.

PS: I’m not done with the vacation journal yet, I need to share my experiences in Paris with you all. I intend to get those written up in the next week so be watching out for them, it was a pretty incredible experience.