BOOK CHAT: Good Riddance 2017! Welcome 2018!

Good Riddance 2017!

I cannot express enough how thankful I am to see 2017 in the past.  It was a difficult and challenging year in many ways.  I watched my grandmother fall to an evil illness.  I had a major surgery that hit me a bit harder than I expected, and that took me a bit longer to recover from.  I lost my mother-in-law.  And, all the other stuff in between.  Good-bye 2017!  I'm glad to see you go!

I have entered 2018 with already a number of obstacles.  I was sick the entire holiday break.  I thought I was improving, and then I was hit hard.  I spent two days during the first week of the year seeing doctors between my daughter and myself.  And, I just cannot seem to feel rested.  However, I have high hopes for the year.  I've got goals, and I intend to accomplish them.  As I look back, I realize that I've been stuck in a rut the last couple of years.  That rut can be attributed to a number of things, and I am sick of being stuck.  I am determined to make 2018 my year to break free and begin making progress again.

In past years, I have come up with one word to live by for the year.  My last two years have been WRITE.  And, I did write.  In 2017, I had four articles published in a local magazine, and the added bonus of being featured in a different local magazine for this very blog.  However, my writing here on the blog and in other avenues took a huge hit.  As I closed out the year, I resolved to get back into writing for me.  Eventually, that writing may be shared with others like here on the blog; other stuff may not.  I simply want to fall back in love with writing again, writing tales and words that I am passionate about and love.  I have missed the connections in this little corner of the blogosphere, and I hope to rebuild those in this new year.

Besides the writing, I found myself frequently preaching about self-care this past year, but was not the best at practicing it myself.  In 2018, I'm getting back to ensuring that I am caring for myself, so that I can better care for my family and all those that are important to me.  I mean caring for my mind and my body . . . practicing mindfulness, physical exercise, and eating a healthier diet.  I fell off the wagon with many of these in 2017 and it's time to return and re-energize.

I'm not bringing one word with me into 2018.  Instead, I'm getting back to the basics.  I will be starting slow, but I hope to see you all around here chatting about books and life as I take those baby steps back into blogging regularly.  Readers here will see new features that may not always be about specific books, but that I feel contribute to being a better reader and writer in general.  And, I hope to see more connections being made by combining the old and the new.

So, I say . . . Welcome 2018!  Let's do this!

YOUR TURN:  How was your 2017, and what do you plan to do with this new year?