So This Is The New Year

Having reflected on the year past, I must now look to the year ahead.

It is traditional at these times to make resolutions about the upcoming year; things we want to change about our lives, goals we wish to accomplish, habits we want to leave behind.

Resolutions are things that I make all the time. Almost weekly, ZPJ and I go for a long walk and inevitably start planning how to better manage our finances, our waistlines, our free time. We develop elaborate plans for saving, lunching, travelling, and I would say that almost a full 25% of these plans are carried out for at least the following week, which I think is pretty good. We're a planning family more than an implementing family, and that's okay.

So I feel that any resolutions I make this week for the next year are not likely to have too much more weight than our weekly walking resolutions. So, instead, I propose a list of things that I hope will happen in the next year rather than things that I resolve to do.

1. I hope that the new Congress can be effectual and move our country away from ideologies that are divisive and regressive.
2. I hope that I can finally find a schedule that is neither too full nor too empty.
3. I hope that I can develop my artistry as much as I've been developing my pedagogy.
4. I hope that my cat and my mom both miraculously overcome their mysterious illnesses.
5. I hope that we can figure out how to not be warmongers in the Middle East.
6. I hope that I can continue to find ways to live as woman of action and faith, and not just as a woman of words.
7. I hope that ZPJ and I don't have to grow up too quickly.
8. I hope that I figure out something to do with myself once I get this degree.

That's some pretty good hoping for now, I think. Maybe I'll add to it as the week goes on.

What are your hopes for the next year?