This year. The year of 2016. The year of the Fire Monkey.

I’m not making big promises this year. I know I’ll do this: I will write, meditate, walk, and touch.

And I will take time to be alone. Spending quality time alone, I’m making that my business. More than I’ve done in the previous years.

And I will make sure to spend time with my husband. Go on overnight dates with him. We deserve to be good to each other. We deserve to celebrate us, our union. This relationship is the foundation of our home.

That’s it. Simple. And life changing, again, I believe.

I will strive to continue to live a life – and better myself at it – of loving kindness, understanding, and compassion.

I hope to be of use to the world around me. Spending time alone (and taking care of my most important relationships) will help me open more, be more conscious, more mindful. It will allow me to give in, let go, and free myself to be of use to the Universe.

Other plans and promises are mere details:

• There will be a Gratitude Jar or Journal.
• There is a list of Random Acts of Kindness to start ticking off. (I’ll get back to this on a post.)
• There are some questions to answer, some ideas to ponder.

And of course there are some plans for our inn and our home. Things to develop, to build, to fix. There will hopefully be chickens or ducks, goats or bunnies. Or maybe all of them. There will be more volunteers joining us. There are family members to spend time with. So many interesting conversations to have. Laughter to be shared, shoulder to be offered.

Welcome 2016. Good friend. A fine year. Welcome.