Day 0: Captured the last rays of sunlight of 2010

I plan to re-launch this blog for 2011 and do something, learn something or say something new everyday and record them here. Since I’ve actually already been doing something new each day for awhile, I’m starting a day early on the recording.

It was a rainy day and I made the most of it by getting my laundry done, cooking some soup and cleaning up from Christmas by throwing out the tree and putting away all the special decorations. The rain finally quit and the sun made a final appearance for the year just minutes before setting casting gorgeous light against the straggling clouds.

I captured the light and clouds in a rain puddle.

I’m going to lay out my fears and hesitations so that they can stay behind in 2010. I’m afraid there will be too many days when I don’t want something new. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to present my new things in an interesting way. I am afraid that this will become to personal and journal like, especially since I’m starting off by admitting to my fears. I’m afraid that my theme of simply doing something new is too broad and too open and I’ll get lost in the possibilities.

I imagine that I will write and post pictures quite often for this blog. But it is also my intention to edge out of my comfort zone and to explore corners of Chicago where I have not yet ventured, to try some days to create something new like a collage or a piece of art, and to find fresh moments in the good old routines of daily life.

moon walking

Today was the big day, I turned 40!  It is also the 41st anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.  So it is historically a magical day.  I have had a great birthday with free lunch, cocktails, kid's baseball, family dinner, and 44 nephew hugs (the younger one gave me one for each year with no breaks and the older one, who is almost too cool for hugs gave me one for each decade).  The power of face book does amaze me and while I probably lost out on some cards in the mail, I felt the love from all corners of the world and so many walks of my life so far - from family, elementary school, high school, collage, peace corps, old co-workers, new co-workers, grad school.  A cheery cross section of the life I've lived so far.

Starting Something New

I overheard a woman in a restaurant telling her friends that she had pledged to try something new every day for a year. Her friends were amazed, how did she had time for such a project, something new absolutely every day? She explained that it could be something simple, like ordering something she’d never tried before on the menu or even just turning down a different street and taking a new way home. Suddenly the amazed friends totally lost interest; those things were too simple, they were unimpressed.

The project has stayed with me because each day and indeed each moment is new. We can make our own lives interesting by exploring what is right in front of us, by pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones, bit by bit. We can choose to recognize each moment as something original as it passes and choose to keep life fresh by actively recognizing each day’s opportunity with interest, even if it is simply acknowledging another bud opening into just another bloom on the vine.

Try something new everyday and record it here. I could record it with a picture, a brief description, a journal, an idea. I know I will tend towards clusters of new things followed by slow days when I want the same old rhythms to rock me through whatever challenges me. The ebbs and flows are expected. I will take something new from each day.