I am seeing and hearing it everywhere. What are your resolutions for the New Year? That question that comes at the end of every year that is supposed to drive us to think and make a list of goals for the coming year. That wonderful list we all write up that most of us fail to live up to and that we forget about by the third week in January. Of course, there are a few who persevere in their commitments at least until the middle of February.

Okay, that was a little cynical.

I do think about the coming year and what I would like to see happen in my life. I guess the list thing really does not work for me. The resolution thing also sounds so cliché and too much like homework that I would rather drink castor oil.

It is important to me that I can work on things in 2009 that will make me improve as an individual in several areas of my life. Some of these areas are being driven by external forces acting on my life and some are being driven by own internal desires and needs.

With my pending layoff at the end of January, find a job is paramount in 2009. This is also opening up a door to opportunities for me career wise. I have been looking for some new direction. This is allowing me to look into several possibilities. I am actually excited about my job search despite the obvious challenges that this current economy is bringing to the job market. I am networking and I have been working on every possible lead to see what turns up for me.

My children are now all grown. I look forward to this next phase of fatherhood. We are developing into that period where the parent child relationship is now augmented by friendship. I love to see them embark on their life journeys and see the wonderful young adulthood experiences they are building. I look forward to 2009 allowing me to be a better father to them and to also savor this period of time with them.

My partner, Gary and I , have enjoyed 10 years together in a relationship that I never thought was possible. It has been something that was etched out of day to day growing together and loving each other as life extended whatever challenge it has given to us. This journey for us continues. Nothing has been as satisfying or as beautiful to me as my life with this man. I remember being very young and wondering if I would ever find true love. I did. I am living it. I look forward to another year of it in 2009.

I want to be healthier in 2009. No fad diets. I need to exercise more and eat better. I already have started. I just need to exercise the way I should. I have done it before. Gary is a good example for me. I finally reached the point where I want to do it. I love clothes. I want to get a little fit to wear the clothes I want to wear. So a little vanity does help the motivation, whatever works, right? I also want that high I use to get after a good workout. I always feel the most alive after that.

I also want to travel more. Gary and I love to do this and we do not need to go far. California has wonderful places to visit within a few driving hours. Also, I really want to visit my birthplace and home, Guam. I have not been there since 1991. It is time.

Speaking of Guam, I have been doing a lot of reconnecting with people and things of my culture from Guam – the Chamorro Culture. It is hard for those not of that culture to understand the deep connection the Chamorros have with their roots. Although no pure blooded native remains in the world, the descendants who carry some of that bloodline, through oral history and tradition, have clung on to that heritage. It is so deep in the psyche of my people and has survived wars and foreign conquests over hundreds of years. That connection and pride is something that I love and cherish. I look forward in 2009 to really rediscovering more about my culture.

This past year, I was more engaged in the political process. I was especially involved in the efforts against the passage of Proposition 8 in California. I am a gay man and I am an American Citizen. This is a civil rights issue. As citizens we should be afforded the same rights as other citizens in our democracy. We are not a theocracy. Everyone can worship and practice whatever they would like in their houses of worship, but in matters of government and public policy, everyone is afforded equal rights. I will continue to be active in the political process in 2009 with this cause and with other causes that I am passionate about.

2008 was the year I started blogging and this has opened a whole new world for me. I am looking forward to doing more of it in 2009. I want to work on being a better writer and to really explore more topics.

I have really opened up my social circle this year and have enjoyed the new friends I have met. 2009 is a year that I look forward to continue to build on those relationships and to also meet new and interesting people. Gary commented that he is seeing me back to the JP he knows is who I am at very core of my being. I am pretty social and outgoing. He is seeing me more relaxed and happy. I am.

I want to laugh more. I have enjoyed such sites like the Feast of Fools with their great podcasts. I am a real fan! Nothing brings more joy to me than good joke or a great laugh. 2009 needs to be more about that!

I can go on but this is enough, it is beginning to look like a list. Anyway, Happy New Year!