It’s that time of year again, when we say this year I am gonna <fill in the blank>. Most of the time we make these resolutions based on some kind of social pressure.
As in, I’m gonna lose some weight (because my momma says I am getting fat), gonna stop drinking (because I won the neighborhoods ‘most bottles recycled award’), and I’m gonna stop peeing in the yard (because, well, it seems like the right thing to do), etc.
While these are all good resolutions, most of them will be abandoned on a date that falls somewhere between January 1st and January 31st. Especially the last one…such is life.
Me? I said screw resolutions years ago (as well as most of the goals I dutifully wrote down in deference to the success gurus). As a result, my New Years routine has been much simplified as a result.
Here is what I do now…
1- I stop doing everything and take time to turn around and look at how far I have come over the year. Since I write in my journal just about every day so I will do a quick review of what I wrote over the year. The tears flow, the laughter comes, mostly in realization of just how absurd this thing called life is.
2- I think generally about what I might want to work on next…not in the new year mind you, but next. As in, right now.
I do plan to write another book in 2012 (The Discovery) and perhaps several more. My first book, The Sequence (which will be out this year) was a total bitch to write. Well, to be honest, writing it wasn’t so bad but re-writing it was and is the reason I think authors that call themselves Pantsers are self-loathing masochists. I love myself too much to put myself through that hell again. Goodbye pantsing, hello outlining!
And don’t forget the most important step…
3- After all this reflection and thinking, I sit on my back porch, eat a huge slice of pecan pie, drink a bottle of wine and pee in the yard…and then laugh with God at the absurdity of it all.
