January 02, 2006

Resolved

To dance more. To sing more.
To plunge my whole self into icy cold water whenever I have the chance.

To make more time for meditation, reiki, and massage.

To be more vulnerable.

To get better at saying I'm sorry.

To listen to my family, my friends. To listen to my body. To listen to the wind as it rushes through my woods.

To sleep naked no matter what the weather.

To rub cocoa butter onto scars.
To admire the curves of my body.
To stop being afraid of silence.

To walk confidently instead of on tiptoe. Even around family members.
To stop being hypersensitive so no one has to tiptoe around me.
To make vegan chocolate cake for myself.

To make more time for skiing and snowshoeing, sailing and canoeing, hiking and swimming. To sweat more, cry more, dream more.

To get muddy. To eat potato chips. To use duct tape in every way possible.
To swear more. To fight more. To play hooky whenever possible.

To speak up more often. To write more.
To remind my friends how important they are to me.

To get better at saying "I love you."
To get better at saying "Fuck off."

To keep growing even when it's painful. To clear away the clutter inside of me so that I have space for new experiences.

To take inventory of the CDs playing inside my head and smash the ones I don't like.

To stare into the fire or gaze out the window, and listen to myself breathe.

To be sillier. To nap more often. To laugh more.

To fill my life with good smells: crushed basil and minced garlic, melted chocolate and herbal tea, dead leaves and pine needles drying in the sun.

To take more chances.

To remind myself every day that some day I will die.

21 comments:

Coffee-Drinking Woman said...

Wow. That's inspiring. My resolutions pale in comparison.

Musey_Me said...

My favorite is the one about smashing CDs you don't like....appropriately followed by your resolve ot be sillier. :-)

moxiemomma said...

i have a good vegan chocolate cake recipe if you want it :)

Liz Miller said...

Beautiful.

jo(e) said...

Moxiemomma: I've got the one that's in the Moosewood Cookbook. If you've got another one, I'd love to try it ....

Terminal Degree said...

I never thought resolutions could sound like poetry. Thanks.

Yankee, Transferred said...

Lovely.

Rev Dr Mom said...

Wow, you inspire me.

Jennifer Garrison Brownell said...

Well, I dont make resolutions, really, but if I did, I would want them to sound like this.
thanks!

jo(e) said...

juniper68: I don't usually make resolutions either, but after surfing blogs today and seeing that everyone else was making them, I decided that it was sort of a meme.

Anonymous said...

This is so beautiful.

I especially like "to be more vulnerable" and "to laugh more"...

Anonymous said...

wow. And to think I resolved to put my keys in the same place every day.....
this is lovely (could you work the keys in there somehow and then I'd buy it in my size.)

jo(e) said...

Hey, PPB, you inspired the second one on the list with our swim over at Pilgrim's last night.

I started doing the keys thing about twenty years ago ... and still manage it only about half the time.

The amount of time I've spent searching for my car keys --oh, it's appalling.

nancy said...

Clearly the best resolution list I have even seen - bar none!

Happy New Year!!

RussianViolets said...

Jo(e), this is amazing!!! You find a way to say things that I just never find the words to say. Thank you for this; I will take many of your resolutions as my own.

listie said...

a truly beautiful list

Sue said...

A beautiful list jo(e). I highly recommend napping, as well as the use of duct tape, though I wouldn't necessarily combine the two...

Happy New Year!

Mona Buonanotte said...

When I turned 29, many MANY moons ago, I realized I'd be 30 in a year and closer to my death-bed, and what would I regret the most? I didn't even have to think about it..."I want to act". I went out the next weekend and started auditioning, just community theatre stuff, didn't get cast, didn't get cast, DID get cast, bigger roles, bigger still, and it was glorious and fulfilling and everything I thought and more. And I met my husband when we did a play together. Glorious and fulfulling and more and more and more. Funny that, how thinking about your ultimate demise makes you live...live better...just live.

Anonymous said...

Lovely new year post, thank you.

purple_kangaroo said...

Nice list.

"To keep growing even when it's painful." That pretty much summarizes a big part of the approach to life I try to have.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Thank you. I need to leave for school soon, but was on the verge of crying (why am I so sensitive about rejected funding applications?), and so I decided to visit your blog. You made me smile. Thank you.