2006, I'm looking forward to you!

For the past few days, I have been mulling over my thoughts concerning the impending new year and the one soon to be behind me. Then I read Joshua Newman's post which sums up my ambitions for the coming year so well, and knew I had to post it here:

And, looking back on 2005, looking back over the last few years, I see that same approach borne out through nearly all of my life. In work and play, love and friendship, I've drank direct from the fire hose. I've made mistakes, of such number and magnitude that I can no longer keep track. And I've learned far more in the process than someone of 26 years has any right.

So, to those I've hurt, offended or wronged, my sincere apologies. I think, at least, that I can promise I won't do it again in the same way, that I won't make the same mistakes twice. But, at the same time, I'll be spending 2006 swimming into deeper waters still. Preemptive apologies for the whole new collection of mistakes I'll doubtless find my way to pioneer throughout this coming year.

Sure, jumping in head-first isn't the easiest way to do things, but it's the best I've found so far. Time to take another year's worth of leaps.

The "plunging in" Joshua writes about is how I used to live, until I began to live in a straitjacketed manner for reasons I do not fully understand.

But something shook loose in me during my recent trip to Paris, subtly but surely so. I am not sure why or exactly when this occurred, but I know that I returned to Texas as a changed person, with the self-imposed barriers to growth swept away as if by magic. I feel reconnected with some quality deep within myself. Once again, I feel like the exploring, curious, optimistic and fearless person I once was. I commit this year to appreciate and enjoy all that is good about today while actively working to make tomorrow the experience I want it to be. I also commit to do a better job of showing my family and friends how much I cherish them . . . this year, I will turn my attention outward. I am really looking forward to this year, and I hope you are as well.