Thanks to some exceptionally  lazy Mayans, who either ran out of large bits of stone or simply grew bored with chiseling, I’m left wondering if it’s really worth the effort to make any New Year’s resolutions.  I mean, we’re talking the end-of-days.  If I decide to exercise more and eat healthier how will that help me come Saturday, December 22nd?  Then there’s all of those apocalyptic pre-show events to ramp us up to the big day.  I definitely don’t want to miss out on any of those.  Everyone whose anyone will be there.  My hope is that they’ll get Ricky Gervais to host.  Fingers crossed! So, I’m thinking I can just write off December entirely and maybe even November as well; those months are officially booked. That leaves me with about ten months to resolve to do something.

Now last year, I also didn’t make any resolutions even without the threat of calendar-hating Mayans, but I did try a few things that challenged me in new and scary ways.  I got on stage a few times and while up there, I even improvised a few songs (we will never mention the gospel number again).  I wrote some of my very first sketch pieces and had one performed.  (Sure, I actually didn’t have a choice.  A flyer was shoved in my hand declaring that this event  was going to happen despite me digging in my heels, but it still counts.)  I made a new friend.  I discovered some great writers through WordPress.  Heck, I even got a new subscriber or two to my own blog. (Thanks, y’all!)  And I received a beautiful compliment from Tom, one of my teachers, that hit home and I’ve been mulling over.  It was: “Beth, you’re brilliant. I wish there were a way I express that to you where you’d believe me.”

I think from this, we may be able to draw-out a list for this year.  Well, for the next ten months:

• Continue to challenge myself, despite it being insanely intimidating.  (No one needs to know I nearly dropped my new sketch class the day before it started.)
• Write more – sure, the June Creativity Challenge pushed me a little more than usual, but when I saw the blog stats on my writing over the year, it was kind of pitiful.
• Read more.  Last year I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society = a charming little book and I’m sure there was something else.  Surely, there was. (Most pitiful reading year in ages.)
• Become wise – not wiser, just plain old wise.  I want to sit on a mountain, have pilgrims trek up to see me and bring offerings.  In lieu of that, I’ll settle for more movie nights where friends trek up to my suburban utopia and bring snacks.

Finally:

• Believe Tom.  Of all the things on my list, this one is the hardest for me.  I’m not certain it’s even achievable, but I’ll try.  I truly wish I could believe him. I know he wishes I could, too.

There’s one last resolution I want to try that I came across on a beautifully written blog titled The Art of An Improbable Life. I want to make a list of the important people in my life and write them a letter that expresses what they mean to me.  Now, I know some of you are uncomfortable with this kind of thing, so you’ll just have to suck-it-up and live with it for the remaining five months we have on this planet.  Yes, that’s right – five months.  You didn’t think I was going to start writing to you tomorrow, did you?  If you’re lucky, I’ll put you at the bottom of the list so you won’t have to endure my love letter for more than a couple of months tops.

I think that’s a pretty impressive list considering the impending doom.  Thank you,  Mayans!  Your laziness has helped me keep that list short.