I Came THIS Close to Making a New Year’s Resolution
“Well, if you want to sing out, sing out and if you want to be free, be free ‘Cause there’s a million things to be…” -Cat Stevens
I’m not one to make resolutions, although when the New Year arrives I do find myself reviewing the past year. I like to brainstorm, set intentions for life direction. I weigh what was meaningful and what was not.
Sometimes I feel left out listening to others’ specific New Years resolutions to stop smoking, lose weight, or any other number of ways to better themselves. I try to come up with a concrete resolution I can get behind. But I never feel serious, the resolution feels empty, not practical, I don’t want to announce it, hold myself to it. If it hasn’t happened yet I don’t want to beat the dead horse.
This New Year’s Day an idea came, custom made for me. If I was going to make a New Year Resolution it would this: to write more legibly in 2009. If I could write more legibly I could spend more time with the notebook and less time plugged in at the cyber space controls typing at warp speed. I could read my own notes. Joe could read my shopping lists. I could take down interview quotes with the confidence of a legal secretary, and people would stop commenting that my signature looks like a doctor’s.
But as the cartoon wise woman Maxine said about resolutions on Kenju’s blog: They have a short shelf life. What are the chances that my handwriting will improve, and if it does what are the odds it will last? I can say I want it. And then allow it. But for me lasting changes don’t tend to happen with determination or force.
Lao Tzu says: Express yourself completely, then keep quiet. Be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only the wind; when it rains, there is only the rain; when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.
PS I love my new Christmas slippers gifted to me by Dylan and Alexis.
January 2nd, 2009 2:35 pm
I just love reading the Tao, it is simply amazing.
Regarding your resolution, I would be interested in knowing how successful you are and, more importantly, how you did it. I mean, my handwriting is so bad even I can’t read some of it, but I am not sure how that can be improved without slowing way down… and even then it’s only marginally better.
I do plan to learn how to type this summer, although I am not sure this old dog can learn that new trick either.
Happy New Year, Colleen – Tanya sent me over because she must know it has been much too long.
January 2nd, 2009 2:43 pm
I just read this quote at Pearl’s place: “When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run
away, it’s best to let him run.” – Abe Lincoln
That’s exactly how it feels when I try to slow down and make my handwriting more legible.
Nice to hear from you, Mike.
January 2nd, 2009 4:24 pm
I try to write more legibly quite frequently – and always fail after about the fifth sentence. Maybe you could try a tape recorder?
January 2nd, 2009 4:47 pm
Wonderful stuff, Colleen. I am an onlooker when it comes to this stuff, too. But I share in your desire to write more legibly and have more contact with paper. I love it. Thanks for the words from Lao Tzu, too. Happy New Year!
January 2nd, 2009 6:00 pm
Very enlightening post. Happy New Year. Wishing you Miles of Smiles in 2009!
January 2nd, 2009 7:18 pm
Thanks for the link, Colleen. I agree with Maxine; resolutions don’t tend to last. So I never make any. I prefer to make “possibles”; things I’d like to work on. If I don’t last or succeed, the pressure is not so great…..LOL
January 2nd, 2009 7:24 pm
Lots of folks make resolutions like quit smoking, lose weight, stop spending money on hookers, etc. This year, I made my own resolutions that had nothing to do with the resolutions I mentioned here.
http://www.tomslatin.com/2008/12/26/new-years-resolutions
By the way, I should mention that NetChick sent me. 🙂
January 2nd, 2009 9:09 pm
My resolution (besides eating more fruit), is to write more concisely on my blog.
In Sept. I started a blog on aging well, and just wrote a post about how to take the smoking resolution from resolution to reality:
http://www.livelongagewell.com/2009/01/02/pill-for-smokers-to-quit-and-lose-weight/
I was legible, and I hope, concise.
Enjoyed your site. Thanks.
January 3rd, 2009 12:00 am
Sounds doable. What underlies handwriting? Attention and speed. You’re already on the path to living consciously and enjoying each moment. Could better handwriting even be prevented?
January 3rd, 2009 9:12 am
I like to think of resolutions as reminders of things I want to do anyway, permission to pursue my dreams.
January 3rd, 2009 11:04 am
I usually blow right through any and all resolutions. I tend to think of New Years is the time other people make their resolutions, not me. OTOH, I’ve very big on setting goals and do an entire hierarchy of them regularly. I do them when ever I see a need, rather than going by the date.
January 3rd, 2009 4:52 pm
I write fine, but I write so gosh darn slow.
I made the usual resolutions……to eat better and exercise. I always do this anyway, but sometimes I fall off the wagon when I find the best tasting french fries in the world, or your delicious carrot cake.
PS I love how the picture goes with the title. xo
January 3rd, 2009 6:10 pm
I’m surprised to read that your cursive is poor – I thought only men were subject to that ailment. For a number of years, I labored under the illusion that my cursive was much better when I was young. That illusion was shattered when my uncle gave me some notes I had written when I was about 8 years old! Sigh …. I do think the solution is to slow down. Perhaps taking up calligraphy would help? Now, *that* is something to behold!!
January 3rd, 2009 11:19 pm
I’ve always wanted to do calligraphy like I’ve always wanted to sew but am good at neither. It’s not just my cursive that is illegible but my printing as well.
January 4th, 2009 9:29 am
I never did resolutions and then I thought sometimes we let little things get out of hand and the New Year is a fresh way to restart. Like a cleansing. So this year I did make goals. I like to have goals anyway and a year is a good judge of how you did I think.