Flipping the calendar to a new year feels like a fresh start, a clean slate – kind of like Catholic Confession. We set goals to lose weight, eat healthy, take vitamins, and floss daily. Some pledge to change in deeper ways, to create, to make a difference in the lives of others. We want to be better human beings, greater contributors to society, and better caretakers of our health. This led me to an extensive to-do list.

Resolution List:

1) Write 2) Be prompt 3) Stop talking so much 4) Call the kids three times per week 5) Visit Mom once per week 6) Call my mother-in-law once per week 7) Learn to knit 8) Learn to cook 9) Quit swimming so much – related to #1 – you can’t write while in the pool and my skin is so so itchy 10) Stop fretting about things I can’t control 11) Stop biting my nails and cuticles – related to previous item 12) Eat only real food; eliminate preservatives 12) Remember my vitamins 13) Grow spiritually 14) Fear less 13) Stop after two glasses of wine.

Thank you, Tim, family, and dear friends for putting up with a perpetual train-catching, Tostito-munching  dreamer / yapper who spends 90% of her free time running, swimming, going to yoga, drinking wine and lamenting how she wants to be a better mother, daughter, friend, believer, artist, cook, and philanthroper and often gets so wound up that she naws her finger tips til they bleed.

That was rough. Ouch. Upon review, Resolution List #1 includes 16 weekly phone calls – no can do. Cell phones are out while running, doing yoga, swimming, praying, and working. State laws prohibit calls while driving, and that’s often the only time I am not moving, writing, or working. I try to be early, but in my quest to be present, I lose track of time. I’m working on that. Food restrictions might be good for my cholesterol, but they wreck havoc on trips with friends to Taco Real in Hammond. Am I supposed to skip the queso fundido and chips? Wine headaches are an issue, but there must be an alternative.

Revised Resolution List :

1) Write 2) Be on time 3) Listen and pay attention 4) Love unconditionally. The kids, my mom, and loved ones have their own lives, and they don’t need scheduled talks with me to feel my love 5) Find balance in my fanatical desire to exercise 6) Have faith 7) Switch to vodka.

The revision remains too complex for a focused 2016 goal.

Final Resolution List:

1) Love – love others, love life, love what you do, love who you are, and love God – and skip the booze.