New Years Pensive, 2013 Edition
The New Year always offers such a nice, fresh start. A blank slate. New calendars, a few months with no plane tickets to buy, no approaching major holidays (or holiday parties). But I don’t exactly believe in New Years Resolutions. You can probably guess why. I don’t think I’ve ever made one that really worked. Often, my goals and resolutions are tied heavily to a season, a school year, a semester, or a show. But at this point in the year, I do like setting a few little goals for myself. Some specific, some general, some philosophical, some pragmatic.
At the risk of over-sharing, here’s a list of some little wants, needs, goals, and plans I have for the coming year.
- Cultivate a garden worthy of hobbits.
- Go outside every day (commuting and errands don’t count, no cheating).
- Explore salads.
- Don’t let the groundhog scarf up all the baby plants in the garden this year.
- Don’t freak out if the groundhog scarfs up all the baby plants in the garden this year.
- Join a CSA.
- Floss, dang it.
- Complete my watch-all-the-Disney-animated-features-in-chronological-order-of-release project (next up: Lady and the Tramp.)
- Learn to cook Swiss chard. Also, eggplant.
- Get. A. Passport.
- Give generously.
- Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway in October or BUST!
- Throw a Harry Potter theme party.
- Visit my sister.
- Write more.
- Read more.
- Laugh till I turn a little purple more.
- Call my grandmas more.
- Send fifty surprise letters.
- Don’t wish away any months, weeks, days, or hours. Each is rare if not unique.
That’s probably not all. But it feels like a start. Some things to look forward to.
What’s on your mind for 2013?
Suzy
January 1, 2013 @ 2:42 pm
Love it! Happy New Year!
Sara
January 1, 2013 @ 9:13 pm
Love all of those, they’re great! Hmmm… haven’t done my “Official New Year’s Goals” yet, but here some things I am thinking about:
1) Practice yoga regularly, daily whenever possible.
2) Don’t be discouraged when it takes a while to master new yoga poses. Change takes time!
3) Re-kindle my love affair with my road bike.
4) Learn to rock-climb.
5) Reinstate game nights, even if they’re only once a month.
6) Write, write, write, write, write. Journal entries, letters, blog posts, poems, stories – it doesn’t matter what and it doesn’t matter if I am the only person who ever sees my writing.
7) Learn new things. Take a class at a community college, take a course online, listen to iTunes U lectures, or watch TED talks. Absorb.
8) Visit far away friends and family. Spend real time with them and, in the interim, communicate with them as often as possible.
9) Live on budget — for real this time.
10) Worry less about not being “good enough” and just be happy to be myself, just as I am.
Kristi @ 30 Pounds of Apples
January 2, 2013 @ 12:40 pm
An excellent set of goals if ever I saw one :)
Shannon
January 2, 2013 @ 9:53 pm
Join the CSA – one of the best things I ever did…but then you might write about it, and I will be jealous that I wander too much and CSA-ing isn’t compatible with that lifestyle, and you already make me quite jealous with posts about gardening.
Get the passport! I will find a new job overseas, and you can come and visit me, and we will go on some local cooking adventure.
I have twice attempted to drive Sky Line Drive/the Blue Ridge Parkway in late October only to go too late and miss almost all of the leaves. Surely there are websites that will make it possible for this to be avoided.