I am an absolute sucker for springtime. I love the freshness of the earth reviving itself, the winter slowly melting under a medley of sudden storms and sunny skies. I become revitalized in spring, emerging from my shrouded winter self into New Me.
Read more: A Great, Wide, HopeNew Me doesn’t always stick around, but she’s fun and far more hopeful than Normal Me.
Every spring, I hit a point – usually late March, early April – where I feel inspired to shake up my routine. To move more, write more, live more. To shake the shackles of winter and be New Me.
This year isn’t any different except in one key way. This year, I hope to keep it up. Everything I start this spring, I’m going to continue into the dark of winter. I’m going to move more, I’m going to write more, I’m going to not allow the doldrums to nest in my brain again once the oppressive heat of summer bears down.
I’m writing it all out here in the hopes this helps provide some sort of accountability. I’m going to keep working out, and not quit when it’s inconvenient. I’m going to keep writing, even if it isn’t particularly good, even if no one reads it. I’m going to keep reading more (once I averaged 100 or so books a year, last year I think I only read 40), and avoid social media in the process.
Most importantly, though, I’m going to keep this mind shift I’ve been working on. To look for the positive, instead of dwelling on the negative. To give myself and others more grace. To forgive more easily, rather than holding grudges. To live with hope, rather than despair.
I expect it to be hard, I expect to backslide from time to time. But the horizon is hope, and that’s where I’ll train my eyes to rest.