New Year's Resolutions 2012
I am happy to say that I completed 11/17 resolutions for 2011. I may have been a bit ambitious with "visit every used bookstore in Seattle" (I made it to one), and it's a little hard to gauge goals such as "Be kinder to self." But in the "go dancing" and "write a book of poems" category, CHECK!I would also like to take a moment to thank my fetus and 6 weeks of nausea for helping enforce the "drink less" goal.
So 2012 will naturally be enough of a challenge on its own as I carry and birth my first child, but I am still a lover of specific lists with much thought poured into them, so I've narrowed down a few items I would love to see come to fruition this year:
Regarding the goal "Live with Less," I'd like to explain what I mean. I recently heard an NPR segment on a book entitled, "My American Unhappiness." The author spoke poignantly about how American's live in a culture of excess and yet are some of the most unhappy humans on the planet. When we want to fix something in our lives, we tend to think of adding things (i.e. exercise more, invest more, buy a new car, have a baby) and rarely do we consider that what we really need to do is redefine our standard of happiness. He said the phrase, "Americans need to learn to live with less." This idea has stayed with me ever since, and I've questioned how I myself could live with less. I am still not sure, but I am thinking that it will come to play when buying the necessary baby things (I think people really tend to go overboard in that arena), but also when it comes to clothes, entitlement about produce (I've been know to be frustrated that I can't find a ripe strawberry in the dead of winter), portion sizes while eating. I am still really playing with the idea, and am still not entirely sure what it means practically. What do you think of?
When I asked Joel what his resolutions were, he said, "Make sausage."
I do hope your year is off to a good start.
