Watering the Flowers and Other New Year's Eve Musings...

I think New Year’s Resolutions get a bad rap. It is not the resolution that is the problem, it is the process. For example, if you make a goal of losing weight during the following year, you are setting yourself up for definite failure. You will never lose weight if you don’t have an idea what caused you to put it on in the first place. You will never achieve your New Year’s Eve goals if you don’t dig deeper than surface level.

Last year I decided to try something new. I had just started back writing and the mild success I had achieved inspired me. I picked a theme for my resolutions. I set out to remind myself who I was. Almost five years of being pregnant, having babies, raising babies and going back to work had resulted in a loss of self. I couldn’t remember who I was and what really mattered to me.

So, I took this theme of reconnecting with my inner self, and set out to recommit to writing and getting published, establishing a daily yoga practice and actually hanging out with my husband and close friends. Guess what happened? I found I had been there deep within my body the whole time! I grew really strong, rediscovered my love of my profession, repaired broken friendships and let others go. I wrote a book and became a blogger once more. I listened to a lot of great music and had a lot of hard, deep talks with myself and others. It was an amazing and challenging year.

So I have decided, since it worked so well this year, to pick a new New Year’s Eve theme. This year, I am sharing my theme with you because it may require your participation. This year I will focus on watering the flowers. This is kind of an odd one for someone who is extremely allergic to the outdoors, but it is something that has really begun to resonate with me. Like, if I was someone who was big on tattoos, I would get it inked somewhere. So what does it mean? In order for flowers to grow, they must be watered and for relationships to grow, the same must be done. So that was my focus when I sat down to write my resolutions. This will be a year spent with people. It is also going to be a frugal year for the Ferrignos. Most nights out will need to be free or really cheap so that we can start dumping money on our student loans. This is a debt that weighs very heavy on Brian’s mind and one that I would like to relieve this year. I am at peace with the fact that we could really have them for the next 15 years but this bothers him and we need to remedy that. His piece of mind is very important to me. So, I look forward to spending time with all of you in creative and inexpensive ways and watching our lives grow together this year! (I will refuse to let you pay for me. A beer/wine/coffee or an ice cream is really cheap and a walk, run or hike is even more inexpensive!)

Since we will be spending much more time at home, look for an exciting new teambfsquared site that will be co-created by Brian and me. When we were dating and married before children, we loved to go out to dinner and spend hours talking over a glass of wine. It was our way to water the flowers and keep our relationship growing. Now, as we set forth to get rid of student loan debt, we are looking forward to the time at home working together and building new memories right where we stand. I am really excited about what we have planned and using it to showcase my first children’s book (which is a collaboration between Jen Varn, Molly and myself) and hopefully many more books and blog posts in the future!

So come for a run or a walk with me! Come sit in my back yard and share a beer or join us for dinner! Let’s watch our children play on playgrounds and listen to free music in the park. We look forward to watering the beautiful flowering relationships in our lives this year. We can’t wait to see where we land next December!