Here's to Us.

I woke up this morning with a to-do list about five miles long, a to-do list so extensive that even if I found the motivation to attack it with every ounce of my being, I'm not sure if would even finish. And anyway, who really wants to sit down and bust through five or more consecutive hours of mind-numbingly boring work? Umm.. I'd rather watch Netflix.

I'm blogging today not to fulfill some responsibility, or to check something off my list (since it's been two months since my last post, I think it's safe to say that that ship sailed a long time ago), but because I needed to. I needed to connect with you guys.

They say that social media doesn't really connect us to people-- it makes us feel connected, while we isolate. On a surface level, that's something I agree with: simply scrolling through feeds and liking different posts doesn't constitute as human interaction. But blogging is different. Blogging lets us express who we are, sometimes even down to the recesses of our souls, and lets connect with other people who go through the same things.

At least, that's what it does for me.

My word for 2015 is connect. I was deciding between connect and trust, but connect came to me first, and I'm told it's better to choose the "wrong" word than not choosing one at all.

Connecting is important. Because people need people. And... I guess today, I just want to take another step forward in making it a forever-part of my lifestyle.

So here's to connecting. Here's to loving our neighbors as ourselves. Here's to rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. Here's to fighting for what is beautiful, and never forgetting to share what we find with each other. Here's to family canoe trips and sunny days and shared memories.

Here's to you, me, and we. Here's to us.

xoxo,

Ireland