Solar return

Yesterday was a lovely day, and the dinner and companionship was satisfying to my soul. The food was pretty good, too. Aunt Caroline asked if I had any Personal New Year resolutions, a lovely way to look at it all. This dovetailed with a couple questions Kent had asked me earlier, one of which was what I had learned this year.

What I have learned this past year: Get out of the way and let the miracle happen.
My Personal New Year resolution: Manage less. Miracle more.

The other question Kent asked me was what, in the years that I had been traveling this little globe, had been revealed to me thus far about my unique purpose, my destiny. In short: Why was I born?

I am here to be Heidi.

Also, it was concluded that I am, in fact, a Force of Nature.

I'm taking a walk

It was too cold to watch the Quidditch Finals match, so we met up with friends, ate mightily, drank well, played games, and decided to take a walk. I joined the local Planet Fitness and started tracking my distance on the stationary bike. I met with a personal trainer and told her about my back and heart issues, and she identified safe training goals that would matter, various ways that I can exercise safely while still making Optimus Proud.

I'm being joined along the way by some awesome people, and I'm keeping track of my progress (of course: I am still a nerd, you know!). I'm mapping out challenges and skills, areas of real hiking that are similar to the path the Hobbits followed, and (naturally) some serious reward. In addition, Lizzy and Alessandra are joining me in restarting our Sunday Pilates routine.

Currently I'm not quite at Stock Road, but I can see it from here. I'm looking forward to every step of it.

Do the right thing

Suze Orman is encouraging us all to be smarter than the CEO's: do what needs to be done.

• You know you need to build an emergency savings fund that can cover six to eight months of living expenses; so you and your family will be okay if you are laid off.
• You know you need to get serious-finally-about tackling your credit card debt, because you understand how a high unpaid balance can mean big trouble in 2009.
• You know you need to invest more for retirement to have any shot at living comfortably later in life.
• You know you need to sit down with your child and discuss how much you can honestly afford to cover for college.

Sounds like a pretty good New Year's List to me.