i can make my first steps...

i suppose i'll start off the year by telling you this years resolutions... normally i dont make them, usually my reasoning is that most people do not keep resolutions past a few weeks.

this time, it'll be different. change is possible and i'm going to chase after it.

JP's Official 2007 Resolutions are as follows:
1. Be Healthier
this entails: excercising atleast one a day, working out every week, and generally eating healthier

2. Reading my Bible everyday
constant spiritual growth is what i'm aiming at.

3. Blog more often.
i think it's important for me to remember what i've written and felt in the past. i dont want to forget. and in case i am stricken with amnesia at some point... hopefully i'll find my way here.

What i'm sharing with you next was written by the guy who heads To Write Love On Her Arms... I thought it was a great letter of hope. so I hope if you read it you are inspired.

You are brighter than the fireworks that paint the sky at midnight.

Something happens at midnight. Or something is supposed to, right?

I think the big idea is change. The thing we want to believe is that things can change, things can be new, that at midnight it might be possible to leave some things behind. Start over. Hope. New.

I know it isn't simple, that we live with broken stuff that doesn't just vanish with the stroke of a clock. I know we need more than a moment. But I like that the world celebrates this moment. I believe that right now, millions of people are also celebrating hope. Some don't even realize it but they are smiling at the possibility that 2007 can be the best year of their life.

I have tasted a few different versions of New Year's. I have known it laughing with friends. I have known it alone with pain. Five years ago, this was one of my darkest nights. I didn't know how to let go. I had never known that life could hurt so much.

But changes come. I just want to say that wherever you're at tonight, or when you read this, right now... that there is hope. That you are loved. That you are not alone. That 2007 can be the best year of your life. That the world is broken and scary but it's also huge and beautiful and all of that means endless possibilities, endless opportunities. You were made with a purpose. You are a part of a bigger story of hope and change and you have a part to play.

You are brighter than the fireworks that paint the sky at midnight. You matter even more.

Hope and change. Welcome to 2007.
Happy New Year.
jamie

From "Long December" by the Counting Crows:
A long December and there's reason to believe,
maybe this year will be better than the last.

From "New Year's Day" by U2:
Say it's true, it's true... And we can break through.
Though torn in two, we can be one.
I, I will begin again. I, I will begin again.

Happy New Year