Balance

well-balanced (adj) 

1. nicely or evenly balanced, arranged, or regulated 

2. emotionally or psychologically untroubled

Last year about this time I made some resolutions -- listed some changes I wanted to make in my life in the upcoming year.  Some of them I accomplished, some of them I attempted to accomplish but the result have little to be desired.

This year I am going to focus one (maybe two) changes in four areas of my life: intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual.

Resolutions for my Intellectual Life:

• Increase my vocabulary -- I have subscribed to a couple word-of-the-day websites.  I want to be able not only to learn at least one new word per week but also to be able to use it competently
  
  
  
• Read at least 5 of the classic books I have been meaning to read (the ones that are "on my list") 

Classics to read (partial list):

1. 1984 by George Orwell
   
   
   
2. For whom the bell tolls by Ernest Hemingway
   
   
   
3. The wind in the willows by Kenneth Graham
   
   
   
4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
   
   
   
5. The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger (actually a re-read)
   
   
   
6. The grapes of wrath by John Steinbeck
   
   
   
7. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
   
   
   
8. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
   
   
   
9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
   
   
   
10. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
    
    
    
11. Silas Marner by George Eliot
    
    
    
12. Red badge of courage by Stephen Crane
    
    
    
13. The sound and the fury by William Faulkner
    
    
    
14. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
    
    
    
15. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    
    
    
16. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (re-read)
    
    
    
17. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
    
    
    
18. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
    
    
    
19. Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell (yeah, I know -- what have I been reading?)
    
    
    
20. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott