Resolve
If I were a hater of making resolutions, I'd still make at least one or two, in memory of my mom, who dearly loved them. Every year we'd write them out - hers usually jotted in blue ink, on a slip of torn out paper, then we'd wait for the next phone call to tell each other all about them.
Going through her papers the year after she died, I came across a few of those very slips of paper. To see her handwriting, and what she was looking forward to in the upcoming year, those are the stuff my sweet memories of her are made of.
The making of resolutions has had such a bad day in the press these past few years, we resolution-makers have had to give them different names. Word of the year, goals, intentions, etc. etc. It seems unfair to me that so many scorn us over this habit when the root word of Resolutions - Resolve - is such a fabulous word!
re·solve
/rəˈzälv/
verb
- 1.settle or find a solution to (a problem, dispute, or contentious matter).
"the firm aims to resolve problems within 30 days"synonyms: settle, sort out, solve, find a solution to, fix, straighten out, deal with, put right, put to rights, rectify; More
- 2.decide firmly on a course of action.
"she resolved to call Dana as soon as she got home"synonyms: determine, decide, make up one's mind, make a decision
"Bob resolved not to wait any longer"
noun
- 1.firm determination to do something.
"she received information that strengthened her resolve"synonyms:
decision, resolution, commitment
"he made a resolve not to go there again
|
#1 Health improvement - weight, flexibility, strength, cholesterol, sugar
Back when I was in my twenties, I'm not sure my health even made the list. It should have. If I'd been more intentional about it forty years ago, I'd be reaping the benefits of it now. If you'd see me walking down the street today, you would likely say I look pretty healthy, mostly because God was gracious enough to give me more height than the average woman. Even the average tall woman. But my yearly physical last month told me a slightly different story. I'm barely not overweight, my cholesterol is barely too high, my sugar is barely okay, and every joint in my body is starting to be pretty creaky. Move it or lose it! So health improvement is my highest priority this year.
#2 Good steward of our financial resources
We've been followers of Dave Ramsey for over fifteen years now, and I so highly recommend his approach to not just paying off debt, but handling of personal finances overall, but it's easy to get too casual with resources. So we're tightening up a bit, keeping better track, and overall trying to do a better job of honoring what God has given us.
#3 Invest in relationships - friend vs friendly!
I'm one of those people who is blessed or not so much, to be am ambivert. Not an introvert, not an extrovert - but smack in between. If you meet me you'd think I'm an extrovert because I tend to present as overly friendly at first. But if we spend a bit of time together, I'm ready to head back home and stay there awhile, and my circle that I hold dear is actually very, very small. I'll be pretty open and can chit chat with the best of them, but you'll have no idea what I'm not sharing. What I hold close to my chest and very few, if anyone, ever hears that. I often give off the wrong impression, thereby attracting people who think they've befriended the life of the party, and I can't hold up my end of the deal. I'm trying to be more aware of being friendly, but not so exuberantly, and focusing on that very small circle of people I consider a friend.
#4 Read purposefully
For the past handful of years I've set a goal to read a certain number of books, and this year I'm going with a different approach. I've made plans to read by genre of Classic, Current Fiction, Non-Fiction or Living History and Re-Read. And repeat. Two of the three bookclubs I belong to tend to read current fiction, the other is purely old classics, and I still have a deep, abiding love for living as a lifelong learner. I love reading by what I call the Abraham Lincoln approach. He was mostly self-educated by the reading of books that he picked up anywhere he could.
Right now I'm reading a middle-school level of book called The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, written in the 1940's, a whimsical fantasy that is feeling perfect for Texas' version of winter. So far I've set aside in a stack of to be reads The Chronicles of Narnia, Cry the Beloved Country, finishing The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens, and then I'll do a re-read of something I love but haven't read in at least five years. Doesn't everyone want to re-read something they so loved the first go around?
#5 Tackle projects
Oh my.
I used to have 40+ years of photos to deal with; then we got Cub Sweetheart's mothers' umpteen years added to it. Then we got my own mothers'. It feels a little like needing to lose 100 pounds - insurmountable. But I decided THIS IS THE YEAR. Just start. So I've begun dragging photos and scrapbooks and files and boxes out of closets and under beds and down from the attic, and twice a week, for an hour I will sit down with a box and begin to purge. The good news is that most of the mess is actual photos, so I'm counting on 50% being out of focus or red eye or such, so they can be chucked in the trash. Remember back in the day when we had an actual roll of film, with twelve photos to be taken, so we really thought about the photos we took? There's something to be said for that approach. My thought is to just start, make progress, and not look at the enormity of the undertaking. Whatever I get done this year is more than I did in 2018, and I expect there will be some great moments spent remembering. Just a few days ago I found the doctor's prescription filled out announcing I was pregnant with my first child, referred to as 'my date of confinement'. Felt like something out of Call The Midwife to be told I had to take off work four weeks out from my due date.
#6 Study as able
Studying, a unique hobby I hold dear, will be done mostly through reading, because dealing with the gabillion photos and memorabilia will take precedent over learning about the Egyptian process of mummification....
#7 Improve knitting skills
After skating along for ten years, I made a goal / resolution last year to intentionally improve my knitting skills. Last year I finished a cardigan, and a pair of socks, plus a hat here and there. So this year I'm working on knitting socks, understanding the process, the techniques involved, how to choose yarn, and how to finish up the project because a gift of a pair of socks that have lumps under ones toes isn't much of a gift, no matter how many hours it took to knit them. If you can knit a sock, you can knit just about anything.
#8 Schedules and standards in place for routine flow of home, days
I'd like to get a schedule of days, reminiscent of when Aunt Bee had dishtowels with each day of the week embroidered on them. One day was wash day, one was ironing, etc. etc. Not that I want to spend an entire day ironing, but there is something to be said for certain days of the week being set aside for cleaning, shopping, desk work, etc. I'd like a set of go to menus that will free up my time and still feed my family, even if it's a family of two.
So there you have it - my resolutions for 2019. The only thing that would make them better is if I could pick up the phone and call Mom and we'd talk them over.
If you've never set any yourself, there's still time! You can go HERE to see how to get started.
Comments