I hate New Year’s Resolutions. They’re usually some half-Balaam’s Ass’d attempt at making people feel better about themselves as they postpone making lasting beneficial choices to their health. But there is something about a new year, a clean slate, and a fresh start. So I like to keep mine broad and general. Things that require effort and intention but are not things like, “eat salad everyday for the rest of my life,” or “go to the gym everyday and look like pre-Blue Ivy Beyonce Knowles,” or “have some sort of miraculous revelatory dream or vision from God once a week.”
Instead, simply, mine are:
- create more
- pray more
- read more*
- run more
- explore more
*non-school related material.
Over the summer I was very creative. I was painting, I was cooking, I was hosting dinners, I was gardening, I was building things with my hands. Grad school kind of put a halt on that. There is something very spiritual about creating things. Whether you’re making music or plants grow or art or food or writing stories — the creative process places yourself parallel with the hands of the ultimate Creator.
I was also getting out in creation and exploring the parts of Florida not many people know about almost every weekend. Though I planned on doing that as well in Tennessee, it also didn’t happen as much as I would have liked. (Can it ever?)
I got an early start on some of my resolutions over Christmas break. Creating music and climbing with Russ, reading a book or two, and experiencing lament prayers with my family through some hard times.
The process continues as I prepare for a climbing trip in March, pray through the pain of being separated from the family you love when family should be together the most, discover an author I love almost as much as Cormac McCarthy, and try my hand at brewing my own beer.
Every day is a new day, but there is something refreshing about a new season. I hope your’s is going well — even if you are trying to be a prophetic, vegetarian, Beyonce.