enjoy the first quarter of 2008 by having one new and fulfilling experience in January, February, and March

Well, 3 days to go till the end of 2008 and this goal was still on my 43t list. Did anyone say anything about me procrastinating? There are still 31 other 43ters who have it on their lists so I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad.

Believe it or not, I had actually jotted down some notes for this entry at the end of April! It’s no wonder that ‘STOP Procrastinating’ is near the top of my list. At least I haven’t let this entry go beyond the 4th trimester of 2008 :oP

January started normally enough with a New Year’s day Hash ,however things changed from there. On Saturday January 5th, I arrived home to shards of glass in the entrance hall. We had been burgled!The thief/ves got away with a few personal items, nothing of extraordinary high value but rather sentimental stuff like photos in a digital camera which I hadn’t transferred to a computer yet and a watch my wife had given me. Mid-way through the month I had to attend my uncle’s funeral in Madeira. I was brought up by my aunt and uncle. He passed on after a brief illness and his death wasn’t unexpected and it has brought me closer to my aunt, we are now in daily contact whereas before we’d only chat occasionally.

My wife and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary in February and we spent a few days away in Évora It’s a UNESCO world heritage site. We bought a wall sculpture from a local artist who was laid up with the flu, the whole transaction was done over the phone with his wife acting as intermediary!

March saw me join bookmooch, a community of booklovers who ‘mooch’ books from each other. Most of my mooches have been to and from the USA but I’ve also had mooches from as far afield as Israel and Turkey. I’ve stopped mooching for a while because of finances but hope to be mooching again soon.

From April onwards new and fulfilling experiences are a bit of a blur because I didn’t keep notes. A few highlights that come to mind though… are my new car which was bought in July after my old jalopy let me down in the middle of Lisbon one afternoon late in June. I decided that the cost of constant repairs warranted the decision to by a new car. In October I joined SparkPeople which has helped me keep focussed on trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. I also bought myself a pedometer in December and am making a daily effort to walk at least 10 000 steps. To be honest I’m far from achieving this but it’s fun trying.

Well I began to enjoy Union College more even though I went to my other college at the same time. I loved it! I don’t regret doing it ever! I liked meeting different people who were smart with great personalities.

It was a big great chunk of time.

Was looking through my list and saw this… think I’m a little behind in marking it off.

I was pretty busy during that time and almost never on 43T(that’s really only changed recently).

I don’t remember specifically what happened each of those three months, but there’s no doubt in my mind that I completed this goal. Things I know I did during those months include going to my first concert(Casting Crowns), becoming the sound technician at my church, quitting my job(had never quit a job before really).

I’m sure there were plenty more things as well.

Anyway, I’m marking this done a few months late.

_{Anyone else find it interesting that, until I marked it done, there were exactly 43 people still on this goal?}

I didn’t do the things I thought I wanted to do…but the converse was achieving things that were in someways polar opposites.

I wanted to take a plunge where I hadn’t gone before – somewhere into a darker place – but a friend I shared those goals with – felt I didn’t belong in those darker spaces and that I built too much in my life to walk there. I suppose she was right.

I had choose to move into the shadow part of me as my new things – but those are areas that will not be illuminated – because they do represent bad choices which would move me in the wrong direction.

I learned to choose wisely – or wiser – moving forward. Those better choices are the outcome of my three new things! Not acting on dark sides.

See Debbie Ford’s Why Good People Do Bad Things. It has helped me to understand these impulses.

...I did manage at least three new and fulfilling experiences in the first three months of 2008.

I was elected president of our local poetry group in March. Since then, I’ve developed a relationship with the managing editor of the local paper and have been honored with a pivotal roll in getting poetry from our group published in the Rochester Post Bulletin.

I started a new job in February. It isn’t quite at the level of IT jobs I’ve held in the past, but it is a step in the right direction after having taken a three year hiatus from computer work.

In January, I realized that I’m in charge of the direction of my life. I can sit back and be a victim, flap this way and that, and feel like a kitty cat trying to escape the jaws of doberman pincher. Or, I can take responsibility for my life and choices and choose not to give up trying and fighting until I’m living the life of my dreams.

So, there you have it. Those are my three experiences from the first three months of 2008.

`Three of the most painstaking months of my adult life growth-wise, but so worth it. So busy living it that I didn’t take the time to document the progress. I can say that that time period was a definite blessing in disguise.

Joined you all kind of late in the game. January and most of March were out of play at the time I joined but I did manage to go to my first ever Karaoke bar and drunkenly sing my brains out. Calling that a “new and fulfilling experience”. =-)

March saw the fulfillment of a long-time dream of mine. Dh gave me a semi-professional digital camera as an early birthday gift. Although I’m not the best photographer in the world (far, far from it) I am enjoying having a tool that will allow me to better capture the little slices of time our lives are made of. I still have a LONG way to go before I figure out all of its bells and whistles, but I learn a little bit more each time I use it. Even if my pictures are never viewed beyond the circle of my family and friends, I’ll feel as if I have preserved something that no one else could or would. Others will be able to see the world through my eyes and that, in and of itself, is priceless.

Hubs and I found a new park to explore.