Happy New 2013!!!

Yup, yup, yup, I've been having perfection issues again at notsoperfectkarthi as in, "What would be the perfect xmas/year-end/new year post???"  Result? A no-show at Xmas, year-end and New Year. I know so many of you might have been looking forward to those ever so humorous and witty posts from moi, sorry I couldn't oblige! :-) (A little confidence goes quite a loooonggg way, huh?)

But first of all, let me wish you all,  my dearest wonderful readers, a very happy new year! May all your days hide twinkling gems of immense value that will reveal themselves to you through the course of the day, making you gasp with wonder and prompt you to send up prayers of thankfulness. I wish that for one and all of you and for the whole world! So go find that particular gem/s for the day and make a note of them each day so that when 2014 comes by, you will have a bowlful of those lovelies to marvel at.

In case you are wondering whether I have gone bonkers, I have been looking back at 2012 with my treasure-seeker's eyes and have come up with quite a lot to feel thankful for. I did this because the month of December and even New Year's day have brought us some not-so-good news. I have been thinking of how to react as positively as I can to each.

To the Nirbhaya case: probably suggest legalizing prostitution (not my idea, Swami Vivekananda's actually) or to suggest importing women from other countries to improve the sex-ratio (why should innocent girls be penalized for rampant female foeticides?). To my Mom's cancer diagnosis: forgive her for  having known about a lump and not paid much attention to it for six years and get her as much help as early as possible. To the death of a neighboring young man in a bike accident right after the birth of the new year: send up prayers for the safe return to home of each  youngster who speeds by me.

One of the first things I did on New Year's day was to take down all our Xmas decorations and stow them away safely. I did it although I will miss the riot of twinkling lights that greeted me each December morning as I came into my dark living room. It made me smile each time I looked at them. Bye bye Xmas tree, see you in 11 months!

Could there BE any more tinsel up there? :-)

I also put away my old diary after a cursory look-through. There are several blank pages as usual, the sick days, the so-so days, but not a red-letter day was missed even if I had to sit down and write it several days later!

Which brings us to my new diary and day book:

Isn't it so appropriate that the diary I chose back in November (looking as usual for just the features like month-at-a-glance and full page for Sunday) should say Think Positive and Be Positive on the cover - the universe has sign-posts everywhere!!! As I had told you, last year's theme was gratitude! And each page of that new diary will be divvied up like this:

As you can guess, it's my next step in increasing my productivity and not forgetting anything essential each day. I started the habit in November when I saw the idea for some day planner pages with similar categories in a website. I thought, "Why print out those pages when I don't even fill up half my diary pages each day?" So I started writing out a simplified version in my diary. It's been very effective! All my planning and day's summing up in one place as well as my expenses!

The best sight I had on New Year's Day was this:

- all three guys in my life snuggling happily two hours after I was up and pottering about. This is another sight that is guaranteed to turn my heart to mush each time I see it. And how blessed am I to be able to see it almost every day!!

Happy New Year once again!