My 17 for twenty seventeen

If you've been around for the past two years,

you will remember my 15 for twenty fifteen

and my 16 for twenty sixteen items.

They're not resolutions or goals.

Instead, they were some things

for me to focus on throughout the years.

Keeping with tradition,

I'm keeping these foremost in my mind.

I still want to focus on all of them.

I am hoping my focus will

make me a better person

and will make others happy.

If you are visiting for the first time,

or if you would like a refresher,

I would love to review them with you:

1.  laugh: make someone, at myself, more, out loud

  2.  friends: make more, be a better one,

reconnect with a lost one, nurture them all

  3.  blogging: post more often, increase readership,

visit more, comment/follow more

  4.  don't stay home so much - get out there

and blow the stink off

  5.  my art: step it up!

  6.  send more thank you cards (a lost art, you know!)

  7.  participate in more RAK (random acts of kindness)

  8.  my heart: give from it, open it, love more

  9.  stay up later than 9pm a little more often

10.  be "in the moment" when it matters most

11.  want/need: learn how to differentiate

12.  time management: watch out for those time-eaters

13.  challenge myself more

14.  volunteer more

15.  be gentle with myself ... I'm doing the best I can

16.  tackle: every day tackle one thing

that I've been neglecting

And my 17 for 2016 is:

17.  tolerance: of others,

of situations, of myself

I will continue to work on each of these

as we go forward this year.

Will you join me?

We have a whole new year ahead of us.

Wouldn't it be wonderful

if we could all be a little more gentle

with each other?

Be more respectful?

Show a little more love toward each other?

Be a little more empathetic?

A little more tolerant?

If we all focused on that,

maybe next year at this time,

we'd like each other a little more.

Help me celebrate the birth of a new year.

This is going to be my year.

Right now I'm going to dust myself off and get started.

The Runner and I would like to wish you a: