So, more about New Year's resolutions. Or, rather, reflections. A warning on the dangers of staying still/a paean to the succinct beauty of taking action.

http://www.slate.com/id/2111510/

Things will never change unless you change them. Try as we might (and Lord knows I have tried), life just isn't a passive experience. It doesn't just happen to you. Everything you do creates grooves, countours, and indentations in your day, in your life, in your destiny.

Deciding you are going to cook yourself eggs - scrambled, not overeasy, one yolk, 3 whites - instead of the standard bowl of Crispix and soy milk wears a newly formed path for the rivulets of your existence to travel.

Sure, plot twists (not getting into Georgetown, your mother getting sick), cliff hangers (he didn't call when he said he would, but he might) and unlikely transitions (you ran into that acquaintance from college randomly in the waiting room of your salon) are thrown at you all the time, but what they amount to, how they play out, ultimately depends on you. Your decisions. Your approach. Your actions in the face of adversity. Your actions in the face of bliss.

Choosing to do. Choosing not to do.

Like those books of our childhood: Choose your own adventure.

Or maybe it is more like MadLibs: Pre-set general template, but it is up to you to fill in the descriptors - the verb, the nouns, the adjectives, and, of course, the adverbs (which I believe to be verb modifiers, but which I know are just words that end in "-ly"). Sometimes the story which ultimately is constructed - the one read out loud, shared with the group - doesn't make sense, and some are more colorful, more amusing, more resonant, than others - but the finished product is always yours and it is always guaranteed to make you laugh. And really, what more can you ask for than the promise of a smile (without and within) fulfilled?

I can't really think of anything more I would like.

The freedom of a smile within. To feel it. Really feel it. To be completely unburdened. Entirely appreciative of the blessings in your life. Fully engaged with everyone around you. Involved in the direction of your destiny. To be living, not just coping. To actually just take a moment. To be.

This is the year. This is the time.