I am equal parts afraid and optimistic. I am a lot hesitant and somewhat hopeful. The fear that I could go a whole year and not get anywhere at all clings on tight. On the other hand, I see a wide open year ahead as full of unknown possibility and promise of something great.
You never know the experiences you might have, the events in life that you just can’t plan for, and the people you may meet, who may come into your life for all kinds of reasons, for the short term only or for longer.
It’s 2016 and I didn’t write a post about my hopes for the coming year. I focused on summing up all that last year brought, in the hopes that this year will deliver just as many delights and wonders.
I didn’t look too far ahead, while last year went along, but now it has arrived and all I see now is a whole lot of openness, life to be lived, but how…I can’t say for sure right this minute.
When I was a child, growing up in the 90s, the far-off date of the year 2000 seemed far enough off to me.
In 1996 I was feeling increasingly unwell and I would need all the strength I could muster to get through the following years.
I turned the big 16 when the new millennium hit. The thought of turning twenty, in 2004 was a strange one.
After 2000 the years seemed to blend into one another, being marked, here and there, by a memorable event or two.
This year, 2016, it will be ten years since my sister and I bought a house.
What do I know for sure about 2016: Will I keep writing? Will I take chances? Or will I shrink away from life?
Will I finally get as comfortable with my travel website as I am with this one? Will I fail at that, having to face the fact that I should have stuck to what I know, even if very slightly?
I am looking forward to
next month. That’s really as far as I can see, yet, for the year.
I Will have been blogging for two years during this 2016 year. I will turn thirty-two in 2016.
I have not resolved to do anything this year. I read about how I too can become a freelance writer, that it’s just “that” easy to make happen.
I want to work toward more organization, in my emails and in my writing. My mind can’t fully organize and prioritize. I feel stuck and stalled a lot of the time.
I think it may be a January thing, as much as I try to fight it. I equal parts look forward and celebrate my birthday next month and dread its significance, just like I do the speed of which the years seem to come up on me. They hold me back from a lot, while simultaneously dragging me forward with them.
I see those twenty years older than me who are just now taking steps to better their situations. Do I have to wait that long?
What about the state of the world in 2016? The world’s human population increases, while our habitat encroachment and destruction threaten wildlife. There’s hunting and environmental devastation. Animals are going extinct. What will the state of all this look like in 2066, fifty years from now?
I focus on my own life for 2016 and then I think of the wider world. It’s an in-and-out focus.
I want something great, something grand to happen to me this year. I don’t want more mass shootings and political bickering. I don’t want a certain person to win the US presidential race next fall.
I want to skate again. I want to enjoy a concert. I want to celebrate that my brother is still with us. I want my loved ones, those who are wishing hard, to get everything they deserve. I want my niece to keep learning and growing. I want my sister to find strength and faith that my nephew will do great on his first day of school. I want to remember that 2016 includes the existence of all three of the children in my life, being here was a time, not so long ago, that they weren’t yet with us. I want my friend and her daughter to find their way together, starting a new adventure, somewhere out there in the world.
This year can be great, if I have faith myself. I can’t close off my mind to what could be, just because I can’t yet imagine all that it might be.
This is only January, the first month of 2016. I need to remember that the year’s just warming up, to pace myself, and to give myself a break and a fair chance to make it a good one, the best one.
The rules for Just Jot It January are right here.
For today’s prompt, Linda decided to list the things on her bucket list, one of my favourite things:
http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/05/just-jot-it-january-5th-2016-my-bucket-list/
Check out Fiona’s Favourites, for more here today,
on the new year of 2016.
Her Headache 
