Dear New Year's Resolution,

I know it's been a while since I last wrote to you. Well, one year to be exact. I guess you get a lot of incoming emails, letters, foot traffic, etc. this time of year. Like millions of other people, I, too, am guilty of only touching base with you in January each year. But..... well.... it's your own fault. Your name is "New Year's Resolution" after all. And as such, you are usually only thought about during the after-Christmas-sale-frenzie. If you're lucky, thoughts of you will linger through the latter half of the month. And if someone truly loves you, they will stay committed to you well into the new year.

You were good to me last year. I made my commitment to you on January 1, 2010, to read more books. You stayed fresh in my mind and the relationship between us blossomed. It was a joint effort of course. The guilt you represent when someone looses sight of you is enormous. And therefore, you yield your tricky wand in a magical circle as if to make us believe we actually stayed true to our commitment on our own. When in actuality, we fear the guilt that will come should we back out of our promises. Your support (guilt-trip) and my determination (fear) resulted in an astonishing completion of six whole books. And they weren't picture books for my boys. They were actual 300+ page books with real substance. Me and you were "picture perfect" last year.

While I'm proud of what we accomplished in 2010, I have decided to take a different approach to 2011. You are amazing and useful, don't get me wrong. It's just that, besides you, oh dear Resolution, I have not been the best in the commitment arena. 2010 was tough for me, with a lot (A LOT) of changes in my life. And, well, yours was the only one I was able to keep. I tried, believe me I tried. My "Project 365" ended just shy of 100 days. My goal to start training for another race by the end of the year lead me to quit running sometime around Labor Day. And don't even get me started on my eating habits.

So, I think that my promise to you this year will have to lack a certain level of specificity. Be somewhat vague, if you don't mind. Because I'm afraid that if I make a specific "commitment", a detailed promise to you, then I just might fall short. And I would rather know that I came clean from the get-go and I circumvented guilt by not promising you something I can't guarantee I'll fulfill. Is that a cop out? Maybe. Am I a lame excuse for an optimist? Probably. Do I deserve a little slack for the year I just went through? Most definitely.

Therefore, dear New Year's Resolution, I promise to be a better me. That is all you get this time around. I hope it's enough.

S.O.

Happy Living All! It's a new year, so start with a clean slate........