By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

For all of you entering the new year with 50 gallons of bottled water and a 10-pound tub of peanut butter, I told you so.

The sky didn't fall, the computer didn't crash and you still have time to repent.

The pressures of starting a new year are incredible. Never mind ushering in a new millennium. The media are screaming at us to reinvent ourselves, organize, pare down, shape up, save and invest. It's just too much to compute, considering Christmas was less than two weeks ago.

The tree is leaning in the living room and the icicle lights are still dangling off the roof. And then there are those gifts to mail off to the cousins in Oregon.

Let's just slow down for a minute, catch our breaths, blow our noses and pour the dregs of the egg nog carton down the drain.

We have 360 more days of the year 2000, and I plan to savor each and every one of them. I have set no attainable goals, no resolutions to forget, and no exercise plans to scrap after a week. I have deemed this as the year to just “be.”

Faith Popcorn, who is a noted trend spotter and life-style predictor, has christened the next decade the age of spirituality. Let's just hope this journey of self discovery and soul searching doesn't include sandalwood incense and sitar music.

I prefer to take the eastern route and the course of least resistance — yoga versus spinning, feng shui as opposed to professional decor, and meditation over motivation.

I want to offer grace over the fondue pot and give thanks for weekends.

Despite years of success with its recruiting slogan, “Be, all that you can be, in the Army,” the brass are also considering a change. If they are in tune with the times, perhaps it will be “Be — with the Army.”

So go and be — it's the beginning of a new tomorrow.”

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