Yes, today I’ll be catching up. Raise your hand if you had a crazy Christmas. A peaceful Christmas. A non-existent Christmas. Yeah. I had a little of all of those.
Crazy Christmas – we had an incident with one of our teenagers. It was a long week, a sad week, a rather depressing week. But good, in that things hidden came to light, and the family was able to talk about it. Hunny and I have been talking and coming to terms with a couple of new ways of being and doing as a result.
Peaceful Christmas – we spent the day at home, no company. I think this has happened only once for our family. It was unexpectedly nice. I’ve also had to spend every morning and most afternoons outside with the chickens and ducks. It’s the routine. And I find great pleasure in it. Even in the bitter cold with a fierce Oklahoma wind blowing through.
Non-existent Christmas – did I mention no one came over Christmas day? And that there were depressing things going on all week? So even though I got some stellar gifts – Tom Baker’s Doctor Who DVD, Evolution of the Daleks, and Simon and Garfunkel CD, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme – it was almost like it wasn’t Christmas at all. I’m not complaining. It was just … different. And sometimes different is good.
So now the question begs – will I be making New Year’s resolutions? Will you? First, let’s define a resolution.
a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.
These are the three definitions which could apply to a New Year’s resolution. For several years I’ve determined not to make resolutions. I just fail, then hate myself for it. Several years back I was a psych tech at a psychiatric hospital, working with the girls who had eating disorders. When I’d ask them about their New Year’s resolutions, they’d recoil. Evidently resolutions are bad for people who carry them to the extreme and get themselves hospitalized as a result.
Understandable.
But my problem has never really been taking a resolution to the extreme. It’s the third definition I want to focus on for the coming year: the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose. This year, instead of throwing in the towel and making no resolutions, or making a list as long as my arm and not keeping them, I am going to change my focus.
Yesterday’s post was a step in the right direction for me. My resolve, my firmness of purpose, is to find and HAVE a purpose. I wander through life aimlessly most days. My habits are sedentary, self-destructive. So 2013 will be my year of purpose, both for this blog and volunteering, and for my personal and family life.
Starting with my boy.
He’ll be going with me when I volunteer. He’ll be working more around the house. He’ll be taking care of the animals more. And he’s going to learn to cook. Says she. *sigh*
So are you making resolutions? I realize we are all very different. Your way of looking at life is probably day and night from my own. I’m interested in hearing how you’ll approach the new year. 🙂
Until I write again …
Flea
