Strands of Thought

mood: giggly

Last year I gave up on goals.  For years prior, I’d made specific, quantifiable goals that were intended to lead me to certain successes only to be discouraged at the end of the year when I’d always completed my end of the bargain but hadn’t achieved much of anything because of it.  So last year I decided not to set the specific quantifiable list of goals knowing that after years of doing them I was pretty well trained to complete them anyway.  Did I?  I’m not actually sure.  My data (I’m a logger.  I log, log, log. Excel and I are intimate.  Graphs cause my heartbeat to flutter in anticipation) is currently being held captive by my old, dead computer.  But I’m pretty certain I still managed to stay close to my previous year’s work ethic with the same outcome.  Therefore, I’ve decided to stumble through 2010 with no specific goals or resolutions in mind beyond the very wispy; enjoy family and friends, make each day count, be true to my values, live in service to others… That said, 2010 is gonna kick-butt.  Don’t know why. Just know it will.  And I’m excited.

I’ve been compiling links lately that I’d like to share.

If you are a resolution/goal setting sort of person but struggle with setting them, Maggie Stiefvater has a good how-to post.

This line in another livejournal post I read: “There is value in being good at what you are, but there is loneliness in never being good at who you are” truly resonated with me. A beautiful post, by livejournal user kimmiepoppins aka Kimberly Sabatini, that honors her father.  Short and worth the few extra moments to pop on over.

Wouldn’t you LOVE to be able to buy every single book that you want to read in order to fill your bookshelves and support your favorite authors?  Here is a great post by Lisa Schroeder where she gives her top 10 ways to support fellow authors when you can’t indulge yourself by buying all of their books!

GR LeBlanc (of the beautiful, but sadly defunct, Dragonfly Spirit) is starting a new quarterly online magazine for children called Berry Blue Haiku.  They are gearing up for a June 2010 publication and are open to submissions.  As always, please read the submission guidelines carefully as they are a focused publication.  Good luck Berry Blue!

If you are on my blog directly, you’ll have noticed a new theme for the New Year.  Nothing too dramatic.  I would change the theme dramatically and often if I didn’t think it would impact my readership.  Each time my fingers itch to change, I think of Steve on Blue’s Clues who wore the same green shirt everyday.  There had to be a reason the director did that too him!  Now it sounds like I’m comparing my readers to preschool aged children and the resulting mentality and I don’t mean too. I do think there is something inherent in familiarity and though my readers are surely mature and sophisticated enough to handle frequent theme and color changes, I’d rather my blog stimulate a feeling of comfort.  I would personalize it if I could figure out how.  I’m just this side of techno-smart.  For example, I've yet to figure out why the font often changes in the last paragraph of my posts, such as it does in this one...

Happy, happy New Year to everyone. May your pen run out of ink from all the signing of contracts and books you do this year. May you capture your muse and clip her wings to keep her from flitting off. May you always keep in mind that the writing is for and about the kids.