a fresh start

How much fresher can you get than a brand new year? It's like having a blank page just waiting to be filled up with brilliant ideas, jokes, stories, letters... Well that's just what I intend to do. This afternoon, on one of my favorite radio shows Weekend America (which is, so sadly, being discontinued this month), they interviewed people about their New Year's Resolutions. One that I really loved was a man who said he was not going to watch any tv for a year because he has 365 chances to do something amazing. I'm not a big tv watcher anyways so I don't feel like I need to resolve to not watch tv, but it was his reasoning that I loved. I have 365 chances to have a great day, to make someone's day, to change something about the world around me for the better, to help someone else, to do something nice for myself, to create something. I don't feel like I have to do something earth-shattering every day, but I do want to do my best to find something good in each and every day.

So, here are a few resolutions that I do have for the coming year...

:: Spend more time outside. Hopefully this will be even easier once we get a dog (which we're also working on right now).

:: Spend more time just hanging out. Not working, not sewing, not running from meeting to meeting or event to event. Just. Hanging. Out. With Jared, with friends, with myself, (with my future dog), whatever. Just relaxing.

:: Do a better job with my garden. I think this will mean not trying to start everything from seed by myself. Before, I thought that was cheating, but now I've come to accept that there are people who start plants for a living and, at least for now, I should leave that stage of the game to the experts.

:: Read more. I don't remember how many books I read last year, but it wasn't very many. I did get a subscription to The Sun, which I am seriously loving, so I know having an issue of that arrive in my mailbox every month will definitely keep me motivated.

:: Write more. I am so grateful for this blog because it has given me an excuse to write regularly (aside from work-related writing), but there are somethings that I want to write that don't necessarily belong here. I'm starting a new journal this year, and I'm excited about that. I also wrote a lot of letters and sent a lot of packages to friends last year and I'm excited to continue that. There's just nothing like receiving real mail and I hope to keep spreading that love.

:: See more live music. Minneapolis has such an incredible music scene and I saw some pretty good artists last year (including one of my recent favorites, twice), and I hope to continue seeing and discovering good music this year.

I think this is it for me for this year. Of course there must be some more things that I'll work on, but my overall goal is to just enjoy life even more and take things slow so that I can savor all the good moments, big and small. I also have a lot of crafty goals for the coming year, which I'll save for their own post.