Guest blogger mom-on-the-edge: Happy New Year! It sounds as much like a command as it does a greeting.

Of course, I want to have a HAPPY new year. We all want to be happy. Even our forefathers demand the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence.

Studies have proven that happiness is contagious. So, it's not only a responsibility that we have to ourselves but to everyone that enters our lives.

But, I don't know if I'm up to the challenge. Pursuing happiness is scary. It means I have to take control of my life. Make changes.

2008 was a year filled with warm swells of love each time my son hugged me as I took him out of his crib mixed with a sometimes debillitating depression as I teetered on the edge of divorce.

I don't want to cry in the shower anymore. I don't want to feel my heart hollow. I don't want to become someone I never thought I would be. I want my son to look up to me. And, for that reason I will rally. I will set out and do my best to make this year better than the year before. 2009 will be mine. And, I hope it will be yours too.

Happy New Year.