Happy New Year!!!

2013 was a happy and sad year. Happy because I retired at the end of Feb. and retirement life was good even though I missed working on my project and I missed seeing my wonderful coworkers. Sad because my sister Karin became ill and she passed away on 11/12. Karin was a great sister. I was so used to text her every evening asking what TV program she was watching so I would try to watch the same program. I was so used to call her when we were on the road (my husband was driving, that was.) I was so used to call her asking her how to cook this or that. Life without her is difficult and I am doing my best to adjust.

My daughter gave me a couple of books for the Christmas. One of them is The Happiness Project.  I have given a speech on “The Happiness Project” about two years ago. I accidentally ran into author’s blog and liked the idea a lot so I shared the concept of the happiness project with my toastmaster friends. I didn’t buy the book – I was happy at the time and I wasn’t sure that I needed working on any happiness project. After giving the speech, of course, I forgot about the whole thing until I saw it at this Christmas.

The book came at the right time. I no longer cry for Karin’s death; I don’t even feel sad most of the time. But there is an empty spot in my heart – it is so empty. And the emptiness has transformed me to a different person. I wanted to be happy again and maybe happiness project will help.

After a quick glance, I found out that I really liked the author’s Jan. project, so I decided to follow the same list. So here is the list and how I did today.

Go to sleep earlier (since I am so used to stay up late, it’s hard for me to go to bed earlier. I decided that as long as I would sleep for 7 to 8 hours, it would be fine. And I did sleep for 7 hours last night.)

Exercise better (I need to work on this!)

Toss, restore, organize (organized my drawer today)

Tacking a nagging task (wrote this blog entry 🙂

Act more energetic (No need. I am energetic today.)

I am full of hope for 2014. Still, I wish Karin is here…