Mondo Beyondo 2008 Part One

I love Andrea...and I love her Mondo Beyondo.  This year she gave it a twist--laying it out in two parts.  Part One is here.  I waited until today (January 8) to do part one because today is the last day of my 52nd year...and I wanted to lay the calendar and chronological years to rest at the same time.  So here goes...my 2008 Mondo Beyondo Part One...

1.  What do you want to acknowledge yourself for in 2007?
I want to acknowledge myself for...
~ continuing to write poetry
~ planning a summer vacation...and actually taking it!  This was so important to me, because I'm a summer girl, July is my favorite month and I have that entire month off from work.  The previous two years we'd been too broke to travel during July--last year I decided I was going to let go of those scarcity fears and just plan it.  We had a blast!  (I know some think we're crazy to travel in the desert during July, but we love the heat.)  :)
~ getting over my resistance to the crappy interface at MySpace and succumbing to J's urging and finally signing up for a MySpace account last January...that doesn't sound very pleasant, does it?  :)  Oh, but it's been a JOY!  What a year I've had on MySpace!  It's rekindled my passion for music.  (I do, after all, live with a musician.)   I've reconnected with old musician pals...discovered lots of new music...and been agog at the (sometimes weird) fantastic friend requests that I find in my IN box.  Not to mention that it's how the kids all interact with each other--so imagine my glee that ol' Auntie gets regular emails from the kiddos now...all because she's on MySpace.
~ giving myself permission to not be social...I'm not just a member of the Introverts Club...I'm the President...
~ almost 13 years into our relationship, we finally got a second car...picking up a little blue pickup on Craigslist...the freedom I'm experiencing from always having a vehicle available is transforming my life.  :)
~ letting go of my old blog - my readership is small, but very loyal...and it was scary to let go of California Fever.  When I look back, I think:  I kept a pretty good blog there for awhile.  And even though I'd had this blog for nearly a year at that point and liked the Vox interface, it wasn't easy to jump over here full-time knowing that many wouldn't want to comment since Vox requires a user account to do so. And sometimes I still hear comments that people like this 'new' blog well enough, but they miss my old one...and that's okay.  I'm not writing/keeping a blog for anyone but me.  And when I let go of my previous blog last September, I felt like a burden had been lifted, which let me know it was the right step.  It's funny how blogging personas come into being--it's such a symbiosis of what we choose to project and what our readers choose to see in us.  And I needed to step away from that blog because, rightly or wrongly in anyone else's perception, I was started to feel hemmed in by too much of the latter.  I didn't know in September that I would choose LEAP! as my theme word for 2008...but leap I did in September and I'm happy with where I've landed.

2.  What is there to grieve about 2007?
~ friendships - Last year I lost what I thought were some genuine friendships...all while realizing that they must not have been genuine in the first place.  I've had friendships like this before--and I'm sure most of you probably have, too--where you think you're friends with someone...yet find yourself feeling bad over how they're interacting with you.  It can be hard not to beat yourself up over it, i.e., what did *I* do 'wrong'?  And yet we all know it's not a matter of right or wrong...just a matter of what's right...right now.  I've let go of many friendships in my life...these won't be the last...but it still hurts...and that's okay.
~ Aunt Betty - My mother's only sibling (12 years older than my Mom) passed away last March.  I miss her.  We wrote real letters to each other--she was the only person I still wrote letters to.  She was one of my dearest relatives and I miss our phone chats.  My brother, sister-in-law, youngest niece and I traveled to Las Vegas to pick up my Mom...and then continued on to Phoenix for Betty's service, staying in her mobile home while we were there.  On the way back, my brother took us to Lake Powell...and we spent a day boating in Betty's honor...she would have loved Navajo Canyon.  I know that wherever Betty is, she's wearing ruby slippers...and dancing down her own yellow brick road...
~ I forgive myself for...not writing poetry as often as I thought I would...not riding my bike once we bought a second car...not meditating (even though I consider my reflection time in my candlelit showers a form of meditation)...still feeling self-conscious about shooting photos in public places...procrastinating...complaining about my job...being lazy...wasting time...  Most of all, I forgive myself for those moments when I still feel like I'm placing roadblocks of fear in my path to joy.

3.  What else do you need to say about the year to declare it complete?
I'm ready to forgive myself for all the things I just listed.  I declare 2007 is complete!

I declare that 2008 (and my 53rd year) will be my year to LEAP!