To a Happy and Passionate New Year
As if you were on fire from within. The moon lives in the lining of your skin.
~
The last quarter of 2019 was a really fascinating time for me. I believe I’ve mentioned it before but something hit me some time in October. I was/am for the first time in my life at a point where I’m not dealing with something that is pulling on my emotions. You would think I would immediately be ecstatic, but in fact it was a bit disconcerting. You see when you’ve lived in a particular state of being your entire life, suddenly realizing that you’re in a completely different state, well it can even be a bit scary.
This had a very unusual effect upon me, I sort of went to sleep. Not literally of course, but I found myself sort of sleepwalking through life for a bit. Sure, I went to work, I handled my obligations, I kept an OK workout schedule. But for the most part, I’ve been going to work coming home and watching TV. Now, there’s an argument to be made that I’d earned a break in my life. Living for 54 years with near constant emotional stress and strife, suddenly having none, it’s understandable I might just want to relax for a time. And although that’s likely not the right answer, for the time being I’m going with it.
I’m not a resolution making kind of person, but I am a goal setter and the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to set new goals. There are the standard annual goals, my goal for blog readership (15,000 page views), total followers (21,000), continue my pattern of completing a book a year, and visiting my 6th continent. Those are some of the easy ongoing annual goals that have been set for a time.
On the health front I have two pretty big ones for the year, to finally get down to 175 pounds (12 to go) and to get my blood sugar back into the normal range without medication. Oddly it seems that the last goal is the one that has snapped me out of my sleepwalking. I made some of the similar changes I had in the past when it got high and it just didn’t come down the same way. A lack of discipline, being at a higher level than ever before and being older all conspired against my success. So I’ve had to jump into some more significant than usual changes. And maybe because I have a problem to solve (I’ve always liked solving problems), I’ve found a lot more energy in my days.
The energy has quickly spread, I got back to work on continuing to reduce the number of my possessions. This weekend I sold a number of books, donated several boxes of items to Goodwill and will be setting up several auctions on Ebay starting tomorrow night. I even had more energy at work last week. So things are good.
Not perfect, I’m quite frustrated right now, I thought 13 months out would be enough of a time cushion to book my Antarctic trip for next December, it was not. So I’m hoping to plan a trip to Australia, Sydney and Tasmania to be precise, to hike the Overland Track and check off my 6th continent. I’ve some quick planning to do to make that work. But the overall good news is I seem to have a little bit of my fire back.
Without that passion, that fire inside of us, it’s hard for us to be focus and productive in what’s really important, our non-work life. I’ve still personally got to work on dipping deeper into myself and find some deeper purpose. But that’s for another night’s discussion. So my friends, take some time, have those thoughts and discussions with yourself and get in touch with that passion, it will help you have more happy days.
~ Rev Kane
The Ministry of Happiness 