My son, O, wishes you all a very happy Near Year!

Happy New Year, all!

We are one week into the new year and I already have some thoughts about resolutions. (Side note: who else feels we need a New Year “Restart” about halfway through January? I pretty much ALWAYS do.)

Every year I try to think about the (semi-realistic) things I want to accomplish… sometimes it goes better than others.

For example, I thought it would be nice to start 2018 with a dry January – after all the holiday indulgence and so forth. Well. That lasted all of five days when it was promptly derailed by a VERY stressful Friday (I was ready to pull the cork out of the wine with my bare hands). So now I am having a “slightly damp” January (to quote my husband).

But that’s ok. One of the Big Picture things I’d like to work on this year is avoiding the “if it’s not perfect it’s broken” mindset (see above with the “restarting the New Year” and hopefully you get what I mean).

Add to that the willingness to try (and fail) at new things. So, my dry January didn’t go perfectly. That’s ok. I can try again next year. Or next month. Or tomorrow. I mean, it’s only January 7.

Or I can try something else. I actually love the idea of trying one (thoughtful) new thing for every month. Next up? I’m thinking Reading Night Wednesday. How great would that be?

2017 was a year of high highs and low lows and I suspect 2018 will be no different. I suspect life will be no different. Because… that’s life! But in the meantime, I’m trying not to stress too much and to enjoy all the little things.

And, because most of my more concrete resolutions involve reading and writing and getting said writing OUT into the world (and also seeing the occasional movie IN a theater), hopefully this year will bring more news on that front too (at least the writing part… stay tuned)!

Happy New Year!