The Rise of Smaug

Have you seen the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug?

Huh.  That's too bad.  'Cause this post is gonna draw on an visual from that movie.

Anyhow, toward the end of the movie the dragon - Smaug - gets thrown into a vat of molten gold.  (Probably not actually called that, but since you haven't seen the movie I'm trying to give you a visual here.) But, our dragon is not conquered.  Indeed, he raises himself out of the liquid gold and flies into the air.  As the gold begins to harden he shakes his body and the gold chips into pieces and flies off his body.

He is no longer a prisoner of the gold.

Now, while Smaug is an evil-doer (he says the phrase "I am death" after shaking off the gold) I have decided that 2013 was a vat of molten gold lava that was trying to drown me in it.  2014 is going to start with me flying into the air and casting off that gold.  However, rather than shouting "I am death!" I will simply fly off into the proverbial sunset having thrown off the weight of the past.

Are you confused?

Guess you had to be there.  It will make sense if you drink a coke and watch that movie.  See it in the theater!!  Smaug is super creepy when you're in a dark room.

I guess I've just realized that it's time for me to recapture some of the parts of me that were laid to rest in the past year.  Or the parts that life smothered for a bit.

While privacy dictates that I not share EVERYTHING that happened in 2013, I will tell you that it was a painful year with much more happening than anyone realized.

I look forward to shaking off those hardships, rising stronger than before, and flying with hope into the future.

And, DANG IT, I'm gonna laugh along the way!

Happy New Year friends.

I'm baaaack......