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The Wide-Body Family wishes all of our readers a safe and happy holiday season. 

As we draw near the end of this year, I can't help but be reflective on what a year 2008 has been. Ups, downs, and plenty of "in between". I'm sure 2009 will be much the same, and yet I feel optimistic about 2009. Nearly every other pundit will gaze into a cloudy crystal ball and pronounce 2009 to be a miserable year before it even starts. I understand the so called experts perspective, and yet I can't live with the pronouncement that 2009 will be bad. That attitude is too defeatist and plays into the hands of those who say they will take care of you and then you are unknowingly left with empty pockets.

In an odd way, my determination to take care of myself has left me with a streak of optimism. It is easy to give into defeat, and once you are defeated, your freedoms and happiness are gone. Instead, I choose to stand on my own, happy with my freedoms.

What does this all have to do with Christmas? Not much other than basic Christian philosophy of free will. This is not a religious blog, so I do not intent on pursuing this discourse any future along that path. But this blog is about possibilities that lie within each of us, and how if you will fight to take care of yourself, thought health, fitness, lifestyle, or food, those possiblities within us will come forward and manifest themselves in multiples too many to count.

A healthy you means a better parent, spouse, partner, colleague, student, and friend. A healthy you can mean a better you whose actions inspire others to greater heights. A better you can touch, lead, set forth, and challenge others to greater goals and to dream of new possibilities.

I want all of these things for you in 2009, and I want you to believe you can achieve this by first taking care of your health.

Take care. I'll be posting again soon after Christmas.