Happy 2008 girlies! Another 365 days of new adventures and experiences! Who’s excited? Clearly, I am. With the new year comes resolutions for many: I’m going to treat my family better, I’m going to study more, I’m going to eat less junk food, I’m going to smile more, I’m going to be less selfish, more, less, more less… the options are seemingly endless! Unfortunately, too often, people make these promises to themselves but never actually follow through. We all should realize that, “a resolution isn’t what you “should” do; it’s a chance to move your life forward.” So to give everyone a little boost in motivation I thought I’d provide excerpts. from one of my all-time-favorite books (that I happened to have gotten for Christmas, thanks Mom!) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I recommend it to everyone for year-round inspiration!
Most importantly, I think that it’s of utmost important for everyone to learn to love oneself, wholly and thoroughly, and allow your incredible self to enjoy life’s pleasures, you do deserve it. “I came to Italy pinched and thin. I did not know yet what I deserved. I still maybe don’t fully know what I deserve. But I do know that I have collected myself late- through the enjoyment of harmless pleasures- into somebody much more intact. The easiest, most fundamentally human way to say it is that I have put on weight. I exist more now than I did four months ago. I will leave Italy noticeably bigger than when I arrived here. And I will leave with the hope that the expansion of one person- the magnification of one life- is indeed an act of worth in this world. Even if that life, just this one time, happens to be nobody’s by myself.” And secondly, in my opinion, to appreciate the people in our life that make it so very worthwhile. “In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.”