2010. really?

where they create

still to do

2. bake something from scratch (perhaps a pie?)

3. handwrite Christmas letters to people I love but haven't really talked to in a long long while.

4. mail a package to Shanti Bhavan

5. write 1 personal history/story

6. write a feature on Shanti Bhavan

I am so excited for 2010. true, I have grown especially fond of 2009 recently. but 2010 is also a great time to be alive, and I'm thrilled about being in Provo, gearing up for D.C., making new friendships.

Melissa and I started walk/jogging in the afternoons. yesterday we found a path just beyond civilization and I felt like I could run on it forever. I really don't like running at all. at all. but on the dirt in the desert, looking out over the southern Utah horizon, I felt such resolution. like I could do this every day for the rest of my life.

this past semester was difficult for me--if I can even say that. my life is so blessed and so rich--I hate that I take it for granted so easily. but after Thanksgiving and the snow came to Provo, my paradigm shifted with no effort of my own. I normally don't like the snow. but this year I love it. I've never found a better companion in such hard times. it felt like rejuvenation and gave me the same resolution I felt yesterday on that dirt path.

I'm starting the new decade with high spirits. though I know myself too well to believe it will last, I feel resolved and resolute to believe next year will be better than the last. and the future has more in store for me than the past.

photo at Shanti Bhavan by Amiran White

my heart hurts. I want to go back to Shanti Bhavan every day. I don't know why it has just hit me this week. during finals.

I am "planning" on going to Washington D.C. in the summer. but right now I just can't fathom not going back to India. it's making me ill.

my heart hurts because I was born here. and when I'm here I wish I was there. and I know when I'm there, I will desperately miss everyone sitting with me now as I type.

10 things before 2010.

dresser. love one another print by persimmon and pink.

hello december.

I've been thinking a lot about new year's resolutions. doug informed me about this campaign to leave '09 behind. it was an actual campaign to get 2010 to start on November 30. I thought the idea was clever and thought even harder when each time I passed the news about this campaign on, I got a different response--some people agreed, some people felt sad, others felt outraged at the sheer hopelessness of hating an entire year. it presented a funny juxtaposition of optimism and pessimism. more recently, I encountered a trending topic on twitter--"#LeaveItInThe00s" and it dawned on me that we are approaching a new decade. what conclusions I drew from all this I don't know. but I did remember that Elder Holland once said that "every day should be the start of a new year." inspired by Jordan's 30 things before 30, I have made my list of 10 things before 2010.

1. start 200 sit-ups program

2. bake something from scratch (perhaps a pie?)

3. handwrite Christmas letters to people I love but haven't really talked to in a long long while.

4. mail a package to Shanti Bhavan

5. write 1 personal history/story

6. write a feature on Shanti Bhavan

7. do yoga at least once

8. buy a handmade Christmas for my friends + family

9. throw some sort of celebration for some of my best friends, gordy + brooke (roommate) who are getting married in far away Colorado in a few short weeks.

10. self-proclaimed water challenge: drink only water for 1 week, maybe longer.

think of anything else I should put on the list, let me know. 2009 is a great time to be alive.