¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
There is something so fresh, wonderful about the New Year. It reminds me of a fresh blank sheet of paper just waiting to be written on. Painted. Folded into Origami.
My word for this year: Create.
I've long since stopped making Resolutions. Easily made and even easier broken. Like saying "I'll love you forever" when you are 15. I started years ago setting New Year's Goals. Something to strive for...achieve.
My Goals for 2016
Continue Zen Living and Practicing Buddhism. This is the beginning of my 9th year as a Buddhist.
Continue to use the 5:2 to maintain a healthy body weight and physical therapy to remain independent, stronger and ambulatory.
Give back more than I receive and gratitude for having Enough...more than Enough...always. And be grateful for knowing what Enough really is...
Continue a Pro-Active Approach to Finances and Continue the $50. project.
Continue to Re-Use, Re-Purpose or Compost as much as possible.
Continue enjoying Virtual Travel with: A Year in The World (Frances Mayes) beginning today in Madrid! Feliz Año Nuevo :D
Cross a Few More Items off my Bucket (Life) List.
Spend more 1:1 time with Friends and Family. Real Quality Time.
Continue to Simplify...Minimize...Sort and Donate/Re-Purpose or Toss.
Spread Happiness...Love and Light and Positivity...like Confetti!
Judge Less/Love More.
Have at least one Photo-Trek, Attend one Writing Conference and One Zen Retreat in 2016.
Working this year on my FIRST fiction novel...already have the bare bones and using the Snowflake Method to build on it. As yet untitled. Writing goal...one 300 word page a day toward it for 365 pages by 2017 before a good editing (first draft) I can do this! And huge kudos to Sonnet and The One Minute Writer, whose prompt was a catalyst for the entire thing! And Stephen King for the "One Page a Day" suggestion!
(Prompt:The Plan)
We didn't stand a chance, you see. Their numbers were near the high end of 2,000. We wouldn't make 500 if we counted all the dogs and goats in the village. Not even the ones hanging in the meat shop nearby. Eyes still bulging and hooves dangling. Covered in flies.
By holing up here we had all pretty effectively (as my granddad who fought the Nazis and won) would have said:
Screwed The Pooch
We came up with "The Plan" a little past midnight. They were still a good 7 hours away, per last Intel. There was a small tight group of us that had managed to stay alive for two or three tours of this hell-hole. We knew what had to be done. Then there were the "children" as we referred to them that night, although not to their faces. A few were still "gung-ho hoo-rah" and all that happy crap. But most of them were just fresh faced, wet-behind-the-ears, and had that look you see on the face of a newly gelded colt. Shocked. Stunned. That what-the-hell-have-I-gotten myself-into-here? I should be making out with what-the-hell-ever-her-name-was back home.
Even they weren't as sad as The Goners.
These kids were so fucking scared that you might as well have put a bullet in them, crated them up and sent them, flag draped, back home as soon as they touched soil. That is where they were going to end up, anyway. It would have been more merciful.
As plans go...it was pretty flawless.
During that long night we had scrounged every bit of anything incendiary in the entire village. This included fuel oil, gasoline, clothing, papers, furniture, black powder and God-as-my-witness even Bibles and Korans tossed together on what was soon to become the bonfire they could see from the Hubble.
We pulled together every mine and mortar and live round we had left. I think that goofy kid from Ohio even tossed in some fireworks he had been lugging around from one sand strewn point to another. He was saving them, he said, for the day he went home. Tonight he would probably get his wish on both accounts.
We jerry-rigged the whole mess through each and every building until the Yadzidi village was its own WMD. We had herded what was left of the locals, mostly ancient women, toothless men and assorted grandchildren, into the small Mosque. We left them with the "Children" and The Goners, taking only the small handful of "Gung-Ho's" which a buddy of mine had started unkindly calling "The Crazies"
The Crazies were driven. You had to give them that. The amount of booby-trapping and fusing that they did in 6 hours was more than a Detonation Unit could accomplish in days. Craftily camouflaged. It looked absolutely abandoned. It was a mad brilliance. Before sunrise they had the place "wired for sound". You could tell by the gleam in their eyes and the set of their jaws they knew they had "saved us" and were going to be heroes.
In a way, they were, I guess.
With less that an hour left we convinced The Crazies to join the pile of sleeping bodies in the sanctuary. Our little team of worn out warriors would attend to the last minute details before the onslaught arrived.
"...and when Cindy Lou Who was in bed with her Cup, we pulled out the Rest and we Rigged the Mosque Up..."
Timing was everything. As they arrived we watched and waited, until they completely filled the tiny hamlet .
Then we detonated.
It was our own little Masada...except we took them all with us.
And Ohio got his fireworks.
This is just the bare bones idea. A structure to flesh out...build on. It is going to have accounts from our side, their side, villagers, government...et al. Just a work in the very early stages at this point. It is odd just where and when the muse appears. The morning this came forth...it just appeared...from nowhere.
Now it seems to have taken on a life of it's own.
And the research, alone, is daunting.
So that is it...my GOALS for the New Year.
Soon off to Madrid...and Churros dunked in chocolate.
I'll share the recipe!
More anon...
And the 2016 Car Porn was waiting this morning!
It is going to be VERY good year, automotively!
