I am dusting off my usual New Year’s resolution and giving it a fresh coat so it will sparkle and shine ever more brightly today.
I have had the same New Year’s resolution year after year for so long now I’ve honestly lost count of the years. Really, the same one.
Notice that I don’t have a list of 10 New Year’s resolutions. I don’t want to get overwhelmed with my expectations right in the thick of January when I prefer to be bundled under soft quilts, yakking on the phone to my friends and sipping hot cocoa.
You would think that recycling a New Year’s resolution year after year would become dull and pointless. Like the sixteen years I spent taking beginner ski lessons on the bunny hill at Steven’s Pass. Year after year, I went out with the terrified, eager novices.
By the 12th year, the beginner teachers would say very encouraging things to me like, “You really are a natural at this.”
So I’m no longer a novice at my New Year’s resolution. Just thinking aloud as I write, I could admit that I may actually be “good” at this resolution. I just like doing it so much that I want to start each New Year remembering how important it is to me.
My resolution is to be fully present when I am talking or listening to someone. That’s it, the whole simple thing. In this hurry-up culture, some things should never be rushed through, and always, that is a conversation with someone. There are so few people that seem to care about listening to others, that all through the year I am reminded about how important it is to truly listen. Being present takes consciousness. Your New Year’s resolution will take conscious attention too. I don’t even know what your resolutions are, but I am certain that you will need to pinch yourself to remember to stay focused on working at your goals.
In addition to my trusty resolution, I am stepping into the new year choosing to shed a few things. There is just one thing I’d like to forget and a one thing I need to do today.
The first thing I am erasing is my green bean recipe. Oh how I wish I had never written about it in my column. Let’s just not ever mention it again. Is there anything your family kids you about without mercy? Let’s just leave it at that.
The second thing I need to do is make amends to a friend. She loaned me a guitar for my classroom because my own guitars are left-handed. I borrowed a right-handed guitar from her. She gave it freely but asked me to take care of it and not let it get damaged in my classroom. Well, my classroom is in a very old building and apparently students are not the only visitors to my class. All four guitars in my room suffered the same fate of being gnawed upon by some little animals. I can’t start anything new without replacing her guitar.
Look around your house, check your dusty shelves and return all the borrowed things your forgot about. It’s a wonderful treat to show up at your neighbor’s door, not with some new-fangled gift, but with something returned that they may have missed.
Sarri Gilman is a freelance writer living on Whidbey Island. Her column on living with meaning and purpose runs every other Tuesday in The Herald. She is a therapist, a wife and a mother, and has founded two nonprofit organizations to serve homeless children. You can e-mail her at features@heraldnet.com.
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