Honeyed Words: Happy New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year's Resolutions · 2 January 2007

I don’t always make New Year’s Resolutions but I almost always find myself taking stock at the turn of the year. It’s a convenient time to examine life and see if I’m still on track or if I’ve derailed the train. For me, the turn of the year is a reminder to take a breath and really evaluate what I’m doing. Am I just slogging along, not effectuating change because I’m comfortable where I am or am I truly attempting to live life as a self actualized person, aware of and affirmed in my actions?

The answer this year is a bit of both. I’ve done things that were goals of mine. I completed my first degree; I started this website; I’ve become more focused on my writing. I’ve also not done a few things that were goals of mine. I haven’t come up with a long term plan for what I’ll be doing to pay the bills while I attempt to get published and I haven’t sent out my goal number of stories for publication. As always, I have lots of possibilities, and no concrete plan of action for turning them all into reality.

Dreaming big has always been one of my strengths. Translating these dreams into plans is another matter altogether. There are so many things that I’d love to do, that I can plan on doing. Building this site, learning to speak Spanish, learning enough Italian to get by while traveling this fall, reading the literally hundreds of books that tickle my fancy, finding a fulfilling filler career, going to the gym once in a while, and eating my daily vitamins are just a few of the things that crossed my mind when I thought about making New Year’s resolutions this year.

I don’t want to limit myself, but I think I need to approach the dreams a bit more realistically. It’s probably not possible for me to learn site development and two foreign languages in one year. It’s probably not feasible to work full time and write full time without seriously short changing my social ties. Some people would call this weighing and eventual discarding of dreams one of the lessons of growing up that I never learned. I say those people have taken a harsh view and tried to foist it onto everyone. One of my pet peeves is people trying to say something can’t be done just because most people don’t do it. I know that I won’t get everything on my list done this year, but that will never stop me from making the lists. I’ll do as much as I can, and continue to dream, and plan, big. Fate willing, there’s next year too, and as long as I’ve made three steps forward, I’m ok with looking to the years ahead to finish up the remaining 900-something-odd steps in the journey of a thousand more that began some years ago.

And so dear readers, I’ve got my feet on the path and my head in the clouds. And just to prove that I’m not all talk and no action, tomorrow I will have a full book review for you. But, in the meantime, entertain yourself courtesy of the Gender Genie at bookblog.net, where for a measly ten seconds worth of copying and pasting, you can find out the gender influences in your writing, according to the cites on the page.

Apparently, I usually blog, narrate, and expound like a man. I’m not exactly sure how that happened but I am sure that I’m not adding “learn how to write more like a woman” to my list of New Year’s Dreams. I’ve been working quite hard on my writing voice, thank you very much, and if it happens to come across as more baritone than alto, the least I can do is tip my hat to the influences in my life and perhaps find a place in the literary equivalent of a barber shop quartet one of these days.

Posted by fortrix