Happy Hoping

[X-posted to Daydream Believer]

Usually, New Year’s Day fills me with motivation and a sense of possibility. This year, it’s just kind of… there. Just another day. A day off, which is nice, and needed, but whereas in past years I’ve wanted to spend that day off diving head first into new projects and tackling resolutions, today I just want to chill.

I usually say that I don’t make resolutions, I set goals. Today I have neither, other than the writing and business-related goals I set months ago and just haven’t gotten around to yet. What I do have are hopes. I hope to go an entire year without anyone close to me dying, be they people or pets. I hope to not see the inside of an emergency room this year. I hope to get pregnant and stay that way for an entire nine months, and give birth to a healthy baby. I hope to get to meet my new grand-nephew soon after he’s born, which will be a feat with his parents living in Louisiana.

I hope that this will be a good year for us financially, that my business will prosper and we’ll be able to start digging ourselves out of debt. I hope to see more of my friends and family than I did last year. I hope the economy gets better. I hope to see some really good TV and movies, read some really good books, and encounter at least one story that blows my mind in the best way. I hope to write a really mind-blowing story, but I’ll settle for entertaining and sellable. I hope to learn a lot, about writing, about web design, about running a business. I hope to finally find and settle into a good church home.

I hope and pray that this year is an improvement over the last, for us and for everyone who had a less-than-stellar 2009, which seems to be most people I know. I hope for healing, in body and soul, for those I know who are struggling with illness, and with loss, and I hope for all of us peace that surpasses understanding.

Here’s to a hopeful new year, one that’s happier than the last.