So many people are reflecting on the past year, I suppose I should do something like that. Eventually. The thing is, I like to pretend we’re not facing the end of the year, because I’d then be able to pretend I’d gotten done what I wanted to…
For the most part, my brain doesn’t work the way most people’s do. I don’t have over-arching year-long goals like I want to write six novels this year, or something like that. My goals tend to be more the monthly/weekly/daily/twenty minutely type that are about thoughts like, “If I can just hang in there for five more seconds — !” Seat-of-my pants, off-the-cuff creativity. Much of my life-planning takes place moments in extremis.
Maybe I oughta ponder working on that…
Like my friend Cynthia, I don’t make actual resolutions, but I have a List that I keep in mind. It goes something like, Well, January 3, the cookies go back in the back of the cupboard, the chocolate goes back in the freezer, and I go back to the gym. It’s more than that, of course. It’s like what you have to do every morning when you wake up — decide what you need to accomplish, and get it done.
I admire Cyn. She was involved with a lying publisher at a small press who messed her around for AGES about a gorgeous cookbook for which she did all the photographs AND for which she invented all the recipes. It was a painful and frustrating process and the publishing house was duplicitous beyond belief and SO unprofessional, but she didn’t give up — and now, Cynthia’s book is out… because she simply looked at the challenges in front of her, and took that single step which put her on the road to conquering them each.
Tomorrow morning is your morning, just as the upcoming year is yours, too. Happy New Year.
My long-term goal is to not end up living in a cardboard box when I am old. Other than that, I find I really have to stay focused on the day-to-day, or I just start freaking out about something I’m not sure I can manage.
I love that illustration, too. So true.
Not a January resolutioner either. I do tend to clean and organize in January, but I do that at the end of the school year and at the beginning of it as well. Also tend to “resolve” things for Lent rather than in January, but mostly I live as you do — “My goals tend to be more the monthly/weekly/daily/twenty minutely type” … love that.
That half-sock looks familiar. Someday I must take a class on socks.
I’m with Divatobe about September being the start of the new year. That’s when my calendar begins, too. January is mid-winter. Brrrr.
I need to check out Cynthia’s cookbook. (Okay, okay, I hardly ever cook from recipe books, but I do enjoy reading them.)
Happy New Year!
I’m not laughing about your bathroom mushroom, really I’m not.
Glad to hear the ice is gone, that you’re back safely from your undisclosed location.
Also relieved that I’m not the only one who doesn’t make over-arching resolutions in January. It’s daily goals that keep me pushing on.
That’s great about Cynthia and her cookbook coming out!
Have a good time half-knitting this year, and remember: a half-knitted sock is a leg warmer, a half-knitted sweater is a vest, a half-knitted hat is a beanie for a munchkin’s head. 😀
LOL at the illustration. So true I’m so glad Cynthia didn’t give up. I just made a recipe from her lovely book for dinner tonight. The food was devoured. Happy, Happy New Year!
Paz
September has always felt the new year to me, not dank January; with Chinese New Year coming in at a close second [Year of the Rabbit coming]. I write myself a letter each New Year’s and seal it up; find it to be a good exercise in summation of the year and wishes (much calmer than ReSolutions and being ReSolved) for the next one. My letters began in 1989, so it’s quite a history to sit and read them all at once!
Happy, happy.