Making Resolutions 2021

Kingston, Rhode Island Train Station: A Good Place for Embarking

Somewhere along the line I stopped writing down my resolutions. Perhaps life got too busy trying to keep them. Every New Year’s Eve, attempts at change would be written in my journal. Somewhere in June, I would flip back its pages and try and hold myself accountable. Typically, it was “pretty good,” “not so good,” and “never.” I suppose the point was not to be discouraged. I stopped writing in my diary so perhaps this is the reason for no longer writing resolutions. Let’s add that to the list. I need to start journaling again. Maybe tonight. Maybe more resolutions.

There were four categories:

• Spiritual
• Health
• Work
• Financial

Of course travel fits into all four.

I tried to get as specific as possible for each, having learned the generally accepted formula for change:  goal – plan – execute. There is little doubt that books have helped me to achieve these resolutions and certainly there are those that need to be repeated or attempted again (for example, stop eating so much sugar; get in shape; pray better; pay bills on time; etc.). One of my favorite people’s expression after asking about his well-being (“How are you?”) was “Leaving room for improvement!” I still chuckle when I remember his levity. His #1 thing to improve upon never did entirely get improved upon (or in a consistent manner) but he died trying. There is everything to say for that. God rest his soul.

In order to write this blog post, I searched the Internet for “best books on resolutions.” I tried the usual places and came up empty. Perhaps my search string queries were not pin point. This now required more work – BoP had to develop a list on resolutions from scratch!

Please let me know if I missed any important ones. I tried to cover the gamut. You know – spiritual, health, and financial. Not necessarily in that order and skipping a few.

Staying the Same

I am not a particularly active on sharing my private life on social media, but sometimes I do scroll through “photos” on my phone to recollect the passing of seasons. In another time and place perhaps it was photo albums or marveling at those encapsulated in picture frames. We don’t sell many picture frames (even though we offer an instant, free color print out of one’s subject upon purchase). I figure this means we aren’t printing out our pictures. We have them on social media or on our phones.

Here I share a photo/still life of my bedside table. I took it this fall.  I see white roses big enough to eat with stems too long I didn’t dare cut, hanging on to life in an art deco vase given to me by a dear and forever friend; funny, funky reading glasses and an alarm clock with a blue push light for telling how many moments of sleep I have left. (Too many experts warn against keeping a cellphone near your sleeping quarters.) A water carafe for those in the middle of the night sips.

It is a snapshot of my favorite things, taken in the most unusual and trying years.  I’ve lived  through watching the Space Shuttle blow up in front of us on a movie screen; an American football icon flee police after allegedly cutting up his wife and her friend and the subsequent failure of our criminal justice system; an attack on U.S. soil and collapse of buildings all around me; the annihilation of our economy through greed and poor lending practices and now a pandemic – both visible and invisible. (I consider certain types of malignant media attention a pandemic, too.)  I take comfort though despite these collective calamities that in this little picture the typical stack of books, most of them unread, did not make it. Instead I am reminded that life exists in simple pleasures even and especially when the outside world stops making sense.

Then there are hobbies…

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