New Year's Resolutions

Last year on a quiet Saturday morning I posted my first and only blog entry of 2010.

A New Year's resolution is to post more frequently than once a year during 2011.

But as resolution lists go, mine is pretty short. I'm going to try to resolve to better enjoy the life I'm currently living in the body I'm living it in. Try to appreciate where I am and how I got here and not waste time in ansgt over what I can do to change it.

Not that every life couldn't likely benefit from some improvement. But perhaps spending what in my neck of the woods is a pretty dreary part of the year counting my blessings rather than listing my faults may be considered time well spent. Plus it might just be the spirit lifter that many of us need as the new year lumbers into life in a world gone mostly gray.

There are, of course, a couple of things I believe that I might do better and I will be trying in 2011 to continue to take baby steps toward leading a more healthy life. Consume more organically grown foods, eat foods with more health benefits, etc. etc. Exercise more. I'm sure these things are likely in the top ten of NYR.

Now that we are down to a two-person, two-pet family living at my house, I guess I no longer have any excuse not to weed through possessions and clear out 'stuff.' I'd like not to leave my kids at the end of my days with the mound of accumulation my sisters and I received from our folks. To that end I'm resolving to work at being better organized. Trying to be more ruthless in what I keep and what I discard.

It seems that many of my neighbors in suburban Maryland also made such a resolution for 2011. They and I began this journey into an organized life by shopping at our local Container Store over the weekend. While lines were long, sales people were cheery. I hope that all the merchandise purchased there brings the happiness promised by a more ordered life. If not that, at least may all of us be more aware of what we own because we can see where it is neatly stored.

As I'm resolving to like myself and life better, I'm also resolved to do more to assist others to achieve they life they want and deserve. I'm volunteering to teach for our local Literacy Council working with adult learners. It's a new gig for me, but one I'm looking forward to.

Back to that resolution to like my current life better. It was a mere spin of the genetic wheel which landed me the parents, the intellect, the belief system and wherewithal to acquire an education. I was so very lucky. I'm making a resolution to assist folks who don't have that kind of luck and I'm hoping that at least one of them will be better for my efforts.

So I think I want to begin a blog, on...

Yearning on a Saturday Morning.

 

I think I want to begin a blog, one that everyone would love to read, but realistically more because I keep writing stuff in my head, but not in a form where I can revisit it or share it. 

 

I love Saturday mornings when it is just me and the dog and the cat and a cup of fresh coffee. This morning a cup of illy coffee, the smell and taste of which reminds me of Paris.

 

No rushing to get showered and dressed and out the door.  Time to savor the beginning of the day--my favorite part--and think about 'stuff.'

On this particular Feb. 21, I wish I was savoring this coffee in Paris--if I have to be cold.  Or perhaps somewhere sunny, near the ocean where I can see and hear the water and receive that 'laying on hands' effect it seems to have on my psyche. 

 

I was reading a Q&A yesterday by a NYT columinist who travels the nation finding interesting people to cover or solving the mystery of interesting facts.  I thought what a great job and he is a wonderful writer.  I bet he writes something every day.  Thus the incentive to begin this written monologue with myself.

 

Yesterday driving to work I had to switch from NPR my usual morning listen to the local country music station.  This was because NPR/WAMU was having a fund drive and so reporting was constantly interrupted with pleas and justification for money.  Worthy and necessary no doubt, but if you have already given, completely unneccessary.  So I switched to the country station which I listen to mostly because I can understand the words to the songs and can even in some cases sing along.  There was a song on by Trace Atkins (I'm not a big fan of his music, but I did like the words to this song).  Trace was essentially singing about wishing your life away and then missing what was past; because while it was happening, you were too busy getting through it to enjoy it.  I could relate.

 

Don't know if the title is "you're going to miss this" but those words are followed by "you're going to want this back."  He is correct, or at least the songwriter is.  As I listened to the song, memories of Jules and Megs fussing flashed and I thought little did I know how much I would miss the sounds of those clashes.

 

Early morning peace is a good thing, but not when it lasts most of the day.  I yearn for the laughter and the noise, the chaos and the joy.  I appreciate quiet so much more when it is snatched time from a busy, noisy life.