New Again

2010 has begun, and I have written several New Year posts, and then lost interest and moved on.  They were all well written and lovely, maybe even moving.  Just trust me.

I have really just one resolution – and it is simple, but very hard.  I just want to be better.  Better at staying focused on a project.  Better at making dinner at home, and better at making lunches I wouldn’t curl up and die over if Jacki saw what was in them.  Better at exercising this healthy, weak shell I am taking for granted, and better at keeping up with people.  That means you.

I often joke that I have no friends, since I understood when I kept working and tackled this whole working mother thing that I wasn’t really allowed to have friends.  Phil says it is my fault, and somehow he has managed to retain and grow an extensive network of people who would do just about anything for him.  He is probably right (even if him saying so is a little mean).

This week, my friend Shelley (see – I do have friends) sent me a book I have heard of and wanted to read called 29 Gifts, How a Month of Giving Can Change your Life.  I have started reading the book, and it suggests you journal about what gifts you give, so I think I will start telling you my 29 gifts.  I started a couple days ago – so see my next post.  It is kind of catching.

The whole idea is to stop thinking so much about yourself, and instead focus on others.  This is not a new concept – in fact the first time I heard it was at a Junior High assembly with a guy who had a whole “I’m Third” gig – passing out little blue business cards that say “I’m Third” to help us all remember – God is first, others are second and I’m third.  That was probably 1980.  So see, not new.

When I see a book like this it makes me mad, because I figure, I could do that.  I could have written that.  I started writing 3 books over the last couple months, writing upwards of 60,000 words on stories I should finish, only because I want to know what happens next even if they aren’t fit for print.  The point is, I DIDN’T do it.  I have ideas for books every day – like thinking of a political candidate who makes the big time, with short stories of all the people who helped him get there, called “On the Backs of Men”.  Good, right? 

So the one I always really believe I will do, but then get distracted by something shiny, and don’t do is going to be part of my overall 2010 – Be Better campaign.  I will reveal it in a day or two.

So I am going to be a) showing off by telling you my gifts this month, and b) kicking off my own personal version just to see if I can keep it up and by being accountable, make myself follow through.

I know most of you are silent observers, and infrequent responders.  But as part of your very own 2010 Be Better campaign, consider telling me if you are giving or “insert Jenine’s next great plan to be revealed soon”ing.  You can scramble the letters in your name if you are shy so no one knows its you. 

I am trying to keep my friends, so I won’t tell.

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