A New Beginning.

"Let your mind off its chain!"
Groggily, I opened my eyes and looked around. 8:30? I fumbled around in my big, white bed, feeling for Gabriel's sleeping body. He recoiled slightly from my cold hands and rolled over. I scratched my neck and closed my eyes again.
"Stop eating so much sugar!" I heard from somewhere beneath the covers.
I poked my head under the blankets and furrowed my eyebrows.
"...Hello?" I asked tenatively, feeling foolish and tired.
"Loosen that frightened grip!" I heard from somewhere near my waist line.
I took my stomach in my hands and shook it a bit.
Was I dreaming?
I patted my grumbling belly and sat up in bed.
"Take your child's hand and open up your stupid, tired heart!"
"Go hiking!" I heard, and laughed as I stretched my arms out.

During breakfast, I heard it again.
"Love more!"
I took a bite of dry toast.
"Learn more!"
I drank a little coffee.
"For God's sake, live more!"

I set my mug on the table and looked down to my midriff. My stomach stared back up at me, tucked jollily beneath my black cardigan, waiting for me to heed its advice. I glanced over at Gabriel, who was too focused on trying to get a spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth to notice.
"Don't salt your food anymore."
I cocked my head to the side and sat still.
"Visit your grandmother more often...
and, and... organize more playdates!"
I began to nod in agreement.
"Make the best of your situation. Always."
I smiled.
Bloom where you are planted, I thought.
"Go running more often."
"Drink more water."
"Spend more time tickling your son."
"Unplug the television set."
"Help everywhere you can."
I started writing things down on the side of the day's crossword puzzle.
"Drink less."
"Hug more."
"Stop judging people."
"Focus on your family."
"Wake up earlier."
"Eat more vegetables."

This morning, I woke up with a stomach swollen with three dozen ways to start a new, beautiful year. For as long as I can remember, I've always maintained that a person speaks, lives, and feels through her belly. I believe gut instincts are the truest sense of what we feel is right and wrong. While the heart may love, the stomach feels. This is why I'm left feeling full to the brim with a great hope for 2010.