This Time

At this time of year, I get to thinking about what I'm going to be doing next year. Last year, I didn't because I had accomplished a fair bit in 2007 and so when December 31 came and went, I sat out the front of my parent's caravan at Brunswick Heads at 5am and looked around the very wet and cloudy morning wondering what the hell I was going to do with my year of 2008. I had a clean slate to do whatever I wanted... nothing... everything.

This was going to be fun!

So, what I didn't do was write out any resolutions. I looked upon this year as a year of 'whatever comes my way, I'll get in and do', and that sounded good to me. A few days later, I came home with my budgie, went shopping and paid the bills. Then, my year began in typical Queensland style with heat, rain and storms. I also began reading as many books as I could this year. Last year, I read 22 books. And right now, I'm up to my 22nd book and it's December. The one I'm reading is 'Eat, Pray, Love' and it's good so far. But I want to read more books before the next few weeks are gone and 2009 begins... I want to beat last year's record. If I can't, I'm not going to sweat it. I'll see if I can do it next year.

This year, I got into a Big Book Giveaway on BookCrossing.com, an art project that included three collages of bookmarks (all of which were donated by bookcrossers), I took part in a national study about epilepsy, migraine sufferers and art and how the three can be linked; this took up a good part of my year. I Then began pulling together my poetry book and a book I wrote last year that was all short stories and novellas and began another book on a character I knew very little about (but it's been very successful).
The collages were shown and books registered on BookCrossing.com were mass released at the showing. I've got art currently showing on the net that's for sale and I've totally enjoyed this year; even when my computer caught itself a virus and I had to move everything off all the drives, onto cds and reformat and redo everything; right up to reinstalling all my programs. Not a fun thing, but it was educational in itself.

Now, it's December, I'm looking at getting together three more books and getting them published through another publisher online, doing more paintings and reading even more books! I'm even going to work harder in the backyard on improving my garden - as it has been a little neglected this year.
This may seem like small stuff to most, but to me it's a lot. Next year, just after we all settle back into our routines, I'll be back into my Christmas shopping... sorting out who's going to get what for December 2009.... yeah, I start straight away.

So, I hope you have all accomplished all that you've wanted this year. If you haven't, there's always next year and that's a good thing. Keep on thinking positive and looking the good in all.