Oh 2012

Confession: I started a post about THE NEW YEAR **dun dun dun!** on the 5th. That's ages ago. I've been dropping the blogging ball and no mistake. Why? I guess it's just that with all this "new year" business — the idea that we're supposed to be revitalized, full of resolutions, and starting fresh for some grandiose goal that we never reached the year before... well... it's a bit daunting. I don't have any concrete resolutions, and I guess that leaves me feeling bewildered as to what my 2012 has in store. I haven't any real direction, so the fear is: what if 2013 comes along, and I've spent all of 2012 being stagnant, dullsville, unambitious, and come out even more lost than I ever was in 2011? It's possible, you know. I want to DO something. That I know. Some ideas?

Volunteering
Take a class (piano, language, cooking?)
Take a trip
Write

I could say "get direction," but we all know that is a tall order. I'm hoping that, in accomplishing some small things, maybe 2012's direction will present itself without endless prodding from me. Do you think inspiration works that way? Do you think paths just appear before us for the taking, or do we have to work — really work — to cut a path for ourselves? It's like how I often come back to my Big Dream: to write a children's book. But what about? I have no idea. I just know that I'd like to. I dream about it. But I'm not particularly proactive about it. Strike that — I'm not proactive about it at all. The trouble is, I don't really know where to begin. Where do the ideas come from? Ideas, I think, are like life, and the question remains: do they appear or do you work for them? Many great ideas, I feel, are strokes of genius and inspiration. I keep waiting for such an idea to come to me — like J.K. Rowling riding the train and dreaming up Harry Potter. Maybe that's it — maybe I need to ride the train.

Regardless — trains, ideas, life paths — I don't really know what to do with them this 2012. I wish I did know. The not-knowing has definitely kept me from blogging my little this-and-thats. It's like last year, I felt content to find pretty things just for the sake of them being pretty, unique, amusing, or momentarily thought-provoking. But now it's a new year — the pressure's on. Better come up with a resolution. Better get on some path to somewhere. But how? Baby steps? Hold out for that stroke of genius? If anyone knows the secret to finding new year and all-around life direction... enlighten me.