Bringing giants to their knees with the word (spoken or written?)

I took a very short hiatus from posting formal blogs, because I didn't feel like I had anything to say and it was the holiday season. It really astonishes me how little I do when Christmas time comes around. I sit around, watch tv, eat food, and get stuff more than any other time of the year... pretty crazy! However, along with the Christmas season comes the turning of the calendar year: we retire the old one to make room for another 365.25 days of our life: a time to reflect, strategize a battle plan for the new year, and even make plan to lose 20 lbs (or some other random poundage). It's all great, but it's just words spoken to ourselves to make the inner spirit person feel better about all of the bad choices we have made up until this point. We have to make up for it by promising to do better in the future; "I'm going to lose 20 lbs and work out every other day for the entire year; I'm going to stop drinking pop; I'm going to stop beating my step-children with the studded belt," and the list goes on ad nauseum. All pretty much adding up to nothing but a waste of time for the general population! That's why I don't actively participate in this tradition of setting myself up for failure anymore.

That's not to say I don't have goals, plans or other delusions of grandeur for my days to come, because I do! I merely don't have any delusions that I am going to be steadfast in getting anything done about it. It's just not in my personality type at this current moment, however I do hope that I will be able to find some real accountability partners so that I can at least take steps toward some of my goals, instead of letting them die like the majority of my soul! Nonetheless, in order to do that, it has to be made public what to expect in the days to come, otherwise nobody can get behind you.

Now, these are not New Year's resolutions, because there is no sense in setting myself up to fail in such a short window of time. These are "Rest of Life Resolutions," not to be confused with a "Bucket List," because my list is an ambiguous web of interconnected and ongoing pieces of accomplishment rather than single entities that can be crossed off once they have been done--at least that's what I'm telling myself right now. It will probably change at least a hundred times before the year is up!

The List

• I want to go on a spiritual road trip
• I want to publish some form of written material
• I want to write a good story
• I want to find out what I'm passionate about and do it for a living
• I want to reach out and touch the stars
• I want to bring giants to their knees with my words
• I want to know what it's like to love and not lose
• I want to explore the inner sanctum of my soul
• I want to travel through the mine fields that is my past
• I want to harness the power of the spoken word
• I want to perform in different cities
• I want to tour the attic space that is the mind if an elder
• I want to pour my heart out just to have nobody want it
• I want to do more than I have ever done before
• I want to make a stranger cry tears of joy
• I want to build a sandcastle on the ocean
• I want to take my mom to see the ocean
• I want to accomplish more than anybody has ever expected of me
• I want to live!

There is so much more that could be said, but that's where I am. Life is a journey and it's only worth taking on if you are going to do it right--headlong into the abyss. Won't you join me? As a new year begins, a clean slate of days is every so swiftly passing us by once again... let's not let it get away from us this time, because who knows when it might all come crashing down, for real this time!

-Andy J. Graves