New Year

Time moves so quickly sometimes. Christmas took forever to arrive when we were young. The older people used to complain about how fast it came around but that didn't make sense --- until now.

Christmas seems to arrive every few weeks now. Then the next thing you know, it's a new year. Thank God for a new year. When situations get bad it seems like the new year may not arrive at times. And 2006 truly presented some hairy times. The world situation, the loss of 3000 lives (that we hear about) for a war, natural disasters that don't even get a mention anymore.

Yet, the good times help to smooth over the bad. Writing about emotions is a good way to face and heal them. This would be a good time to put your emotions on paper, look at them, then decide if you should hang on to them or throw them out with the past year and bring in new hopes for the new year.

Write how you felt about 2006 and what you hope for 2007.

Already December

Do you remember the Y2K phenomenon when so many people thought the world would end? Now we are one month away from being seven years into the new Millennium. It's not the technology that we have to worry about so much anymore as major areas of unrest in the world like Iraq, Iran, North Korea. Situations can change fast, that's for sure.

As the end of the year approaches, reflect on how your year changed? Is your situation different from what you expected at the beginning of the year? Is it better or worse? How are you going to use what you learned this year to make next year better?

Why Danny DeVito's Mouth was Trouble

Did you hear about the segment on the television show "The View" with Danny DeVito? It's all the buzz in the news today. Guess Danny D. had a little too much to drink with his pal, Actor George Clooney the night before and was drunk when he was on the show as a guest in the morning. Seems he talked, and talked, and talked. Now he's in the apologizing phase. The "talk too much now apologize" cycle is getting to be old hat with celebrities, elected officials and other public figures.

Why did Danny DeVito's mouth get him into trouble? Well, simply, he talked too much. A great thing about being a writer is that you don't have to talk so much. You can use your time putting your thoughts on paper. Then you have an opportunity to look at your writing and think about it before you let it go public. You even have the chance to erase (tear up, delete) all of the writing without letting anyone ever see it.

You can write anything you want in private as you practice your writing. Write about your thoughts on the President and the Iraq war. Write about why you're angry with Congress or another politician. It's all up to you.

I think you'll find that you feel so much better afterwards. You get your opinion off your chest. Putting it on paper makes it real and alive so it doesn't bother you as much anymore. Yet, after venting in written words, you probably won't have to vent in spoken words.

Don't do what Danny D. did. Instead of talking out loud, write in silence. Take 20 minutes and write about something you feel strongly about in the news today.