HAPPY (CHINESE) NEW YEAR: Resolutions, 2017

Happy New Year, Everyone!
May you enjoy health and happiness and aloha in 2017
 

 

My year-end holiday wish list for 2016 ran almost parallel to Steve Martin's Christmas wish list. You can click on the link at the bottom of this post for the video, so I won't go into detail here. Because I am so late getting rolling in 2017, I consider this a Happy Chinese New Year's post!


Today I am ready to commit to my 2017 goals. This year, there will be fewer than previous years as

Looking to the Pacific.
Scene at Waikiki Beach:
maybe from your room with a view!

one goal is to add less pressure to my daily life! After five years as Sisters in Crime/Hawaii president (one-year temporary and four-years elected), I am eager to step back and offer assistance.

Future projects include a second anthology of mystery short stories set in Hawai'i, and participation in the Left Coast Crime 2017 convention, Honolulu Havoc, at Hilton Hawaiian Village.
(See the link below to sign up.)

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes, so it seems almost unfair to make it a goal or resolution. My Goodreads Challenge list will lean more toward non-fiction, with focus on fleshing out my genealogical novel. The chapters cover several areas of Europe, homelands of ancestors who immigrated to the United States in the middle 1800s. Research has always been one of my favorite parts of writing. With this novel, I can utilize much of the information collected over the decades via personal contact, internet research, and a few special trips.

It would be easy to add a goal to eat healthier this year.

But one of my goals is to be honest with myself, so scratch that.

Purging (clothes, DVDs and CDs, old correspondence and bills, and books) did make the list, though.

Something I want to do, but don't want to make it a "must" is to more fully enjoy living in Hawai'i. Yeah, I know - - duh!

Steve Martin's Christmas wish list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6w5vgYVVmA

Website for Honolulu Havoc, Left Coast Crime Convention 2017: http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2017/index.html

WHAT'S ON YOUR LIST?



FIREWORKS IN HONOLULU
TO WELCOME THE NEW YEAR
 

POSSIBILITIES: Poem #44 from #AnotherNewBeginning

#44

Possibilities 

 

Happiness bubbles up from

a cauldron of endless possibilities,

giving rise to celebrations

only imagination can provide. 

At sunrise, reach for the sky

atop Mount Haleakala,

or from the comfort of

your own back yard. 

Drink sparkling liquid

laced with fresh-peeled lychee

while relaxing in the sensual

jet stream of a soothing hot tub. 

Hear the waves splashing along

Atlantic and Pacific shores; dance

flamenco in Madrid; enjoy the swans

in Brugge and Boston Common. 

All this, and more, isn’t

happiness realized;

knowing you can dream

is the true fulfillment. 

 

This is one of those prose poems that needs little explanation beyond the reader's own interpretation.

Pleasure is often derived from lingering upon memories that once brought happiness. But the knowledge that you can continue to find happiness in everyday life, without chasing rainbows or searching for pots of gold, is what truly matters.

Knowing that contentment is within easy reach, within yourself, is happiness realized.

*****     *****     *****

 

#IWSG Is Ambition the Last Refuge?

It's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group blog posting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can find a list of all the other members of the group here

His awesome co-hosts for the January 7 posting of the IWSG are:
Elizabeth Seckman, Lisa Buie-Collard, Chrys Fey, andMichelle Wallace!

  Be sure to visit the
Insecure Writer’s Support Group Website!!!

 

I must confess, Social Media overwhelmed me.

After joining several sites including Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, I started blogging to promote my published novels. I interviewed other authors and participated in a variety of blog hops. At some point, I lost traction as the social world moved too fast for me to keep up, especially if I wanted to write more novels. 

Writing, research, and editing are fun for me. Meeting other writers and marketing my books are also on my list of fun activities. If it was possible to do everything, I would. Admitting I couldn’t was the breakthrough that rendered instant relief. My stress level declined once I learned to strike a happy medium by staying within my abilities. 

At first, I withdrew almost completely from online activities. The withdrawal corresponded with the year-end holidays. I took time to determine what I enjoyed doing most in terms of lifetime goals. 

If ambition is the last refuge of failure, as quoted by Oscar Wilde (and Gil Grissom) then I feel justified in swapping ambition for happiness by living at my own comfortable pace. 

Of course, my pace varies. I currently have three more novels written and in various stages of development. These projects were not created as a result of ambition but from a need to write. This, to me, is the definition of happiness.

 

This is My Definition of Happiness. What's Yours?

View of Lake Michigan from Two Rivers, WI

Recently, I attended my 50th high school class reunion. Although Washington High School has been torn down, the beach house across the road from Lake Michigan still stands. Reminiscent of school days, a Friday night behind-the-beach-house beer party featuring Sandy Bay Port pizza preceded the reunion held at the downtown Hamilton Community House on Saturday evening.

Over 60 classmates and spouses attended the week-end events, collaboratively arranged by the generous reunion planning committee. Following an actual face-to-face social media hour, and a delicious buffet dinner (not to mention an open bar for those of us interested), we were regaled with a slideshow presentation entitled Four plus Fifty, highlighting our four years of high school and touching on the fifty years since.

Our MC offered a tribute to all class members who served in the military. He displayed several other applause-generating slides of school activities that included sports events, reigning prom king and queen, hall of fame inductees, and school mascots. A special thank you was offered to one classmate for her tireless efforts in bringing decades of class reunion events to fruition.



The presentation concluded with mention of my writing efforts, implying that a 50th class reunion does not signal the end of the road for goals and accomplishments but in fact offers, for many, a new beginning. One classmate enlivened the evening with his rendition of songs by Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, as entertaining as he was in high school. Wherever your dreams and objectives led you over the years, today you can use those accomplishments as stepping stones toward your new goals.

My interest in writing mystery novels, the excitement of actively researching plot scenes and interacting with other authors, and seeing my work in print, offer satisfaction and pleasure for this 60-something mind, body, and soul. This is my definition of happiness. What’s yours?

HAPPY AS A LARK #SundayHaiku



Happy Hibiscus Haiku

Happy as a Lark

Happy-Go-Lucky, Carefree

Happiness is Gold

A major goal of humankind is to be happy. Is it possible for people to set goals that will measure up when they’ve reached their happy place?

 
Maybe something like, I’ll be happy when I:

A. Accumulate a million dollars.

B. Sell 100,000 novels or 100 residential homes.

C. Drop to 110 lbs.; Fit into a size-10 dress;

D. Get the kids through college.

After all these years, I’ve finally discovered something worth it’s weight in gold. I am happy when I’m writing and firing on all pistons; when the Hawaiian sun is shining; when I find my coffee cup - and the Kona coffee in it is still hot. Little, everyday things that make me smile are always welcome in my happy place.

It is my belief that, as the expression goes: happiness is the journey, not the destination.

What smile-inspiring events reside in your happy place?