*this photo is from my 365 project*

Happy New Year!!!!

Well it is for me...

I tend to start my 'New Year' on my birthday. Which is today...or yesterday depending on if I can get this posted today on the 27th (issues with my computer and BLOGGER) .

2011...although you started with a bang...you ended as a fllllllllllllliptttttttttttttttttttttt....you know, a burned out, horrible tired mess. I made a resolution several years ago where any resolution I made, would be one that would stay in my psyche for years....it wouldnt just be something for that year but it would turn out to be a way of life for me. One of this years resolution was for me to slow down and take some time for me. Well, that didnt necesarily happen.

The same with Alie Edwards and her OLW project.

I've done this for 3 years and even though I come up with a word for the year, I want that word to keep going from year to year. 2011...2011, your word was !LIVE! and I did good with that. I was more open. I did more things. I enjoyed LIFE. And then my father was diagnosed with cancer. My best friends dad passed away. My ex lost his job. My son started his senior year in high school. My baby boy started acting more adult like...ahhhhhhhhhh you name it and I felt like...well...I just didnt have time to !LIVE! anymore. I didnt have time for that word but really and truthfully, that's all that I WAS doing was living...through the good and the bad. And lets be honest...isnt that what life is all about??

2012, your word is going to be Transformation.

At Christmas time, it was me, my parents and my sister Netta. Everyone else was scattered all over my parents home but we were all sitting at the table eating pumpkin pie (RIGHT OUT OF THE DISH...no plates here...just a fork for each one of us) and I told them about the OLW project. I also explained that I started doing this in regards to scrapbooking but it had become so much more. It became a quest to direct my life for THAT purpose.

Without me telling them too, they all started naming their words... health was my dad's...my mother's words were faith/patience ( she would have to be the difficult one) and my sisters word was happy. When I told them my word they immediately felt like I was setting myself up for disaster.

Transformation is a BIG word. HUGE even. But to me each little step I take for change will lead to a big transformation. In my health. In my fiances. In my relationships. And when you have all these conscious decisions for a small change in ourselves..a transformation has no other choice but to occur.

And that is what I'm banking on.

In other news...I've fallen in love with photography again. At least the meaning of it, to me....which is to document my life, our lives....all lives for everyone around me. I love the idea of stopping time for that moment...THE moment... in someone's life where they can look at that photo and laugh in memory or even....cry. I want to concentrate on this every day so I'll be doing my 365 project not only here but on flickr as well.

In closing, again...this is my New Years Day but I know that your New Years Day is a couple days away so I will say now...have a Happy New Year...enjoy yourself..enjoy your family...and enjoy your life. After all, its the only chance you get to live it.... Muah!