Last Sunday morning, I spent my time writing a draft blog of Ten New Year’s Resolutions. It was intended to be both serious and amusing because (1) I am serious about these things and (2) I think some of them are ridiculous. This is what I wrote: New Year’s has never been an important holiday for me because I feel like the New Year starts in September. However, since this seems to be the time when many people make resolutions, here are some of mine:
- Accept the fact that I will never be fluent in Spanish
- Write one page of the new novel every day
- Learn as much as I need to navigate my new camera, Scrivener, LightRoom and Photoshop
- Stop beating myself up because I won’t ever fully understand the features of my new camera, Scrivener, LightRoom and Photoshop
- Read more
- Finish the article about Hartford-area Muslims that I started three years ago
- Spend more time with my family and friends
- Call people instead of sending them e-mails
- Stop telling my kids the same anecdotes over and over
- Slow down
Then, life intervened. My husband had a medical emergency that was serious but not life-threatening. We spent most of Sunday in an emergency room, which gave me plenty of time to contemplate the draft I had just written versus how I really want to spend my time. That made it easy to revise my New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s what I really care about:
- Spend more time with my family and friends.
- Slow down
- Write one page of the new novel every day
- Read more
I considered eliminating all but 1. and 2. but I would not be happy without writing and reading. As for the rest….they have faded into the “Not right now” distance. They are all things I want to do but there’s no rush. I’m going to take my French friend’s advice and make my own “Time for Time.”
