it's a new year, even for sloggers.

OK, so I've been quite the slogger [blogger + slacker = slogger] the past few months. I've got no real reason for my being so blog-inactive, other than I seem to be suffering from some sort of relatively mild malaise － have been on and off for months now － the cause of which may be anything at all, from midlife to an undiagnosed kidney infection

Regardless of the "disease," the symptom I seem to be consistently experiencing is just an overall lack of motivation to do things. Things like blog. Or work. Work out. Go out. Clean. Scrapbook. Get up. Move much. Mostly I just feel like going somewhere quiet and sleeping for several months. "Slogging," it seems, is exactly the word for what I'm up to － slogging through some quagmire-like stage of life.

Cheese and rice, am I officially pathetic yet?

Anyway, it is a new year, a delovely new decade, and I'm trying to be a better blogger － among other things － while also trying to give my little self the comfort and compassion I apparently crave.

Here's a quote I find infinitely inspiring from the January issue of O, under Oprah's own "What I Know for Sure" column:

"If living your best life were a test, I would not get a passing grade for 2009. All the things I vowed to do this time last year, I didn't. I didn't give myself more balance or more time. I didn't work out daily. I failed. So 2010 is a start-over, for sure. And I feel immensely blessed to still have a chance to get it right."

Seriously, if Oprah can own her own personal failures just like that, then I guess maybe we're all human and flawed after all, eh?

So here's to 2010 － another opportunity to start over, maybe not all at once with the flip of a magical calendar page, but with understanding and kindness for ourselves as human beings who move forward sometimes, back others, occasionally sideways, around in circles or even, once in a while, not at all.

Here's to start-overs, however － and whenever － they happen for you this year. :)

image source: Mirage Las Vegas