Reporting live from the edge of 2021

Shouldn’t it be enough that I bothered making a list of resolutions to begin with?

For the last several years, I’ve been taking stock of how well I kept my New Year’s Resolutions–a typewritten list stuck to the fridge with a magnet that in the last couple years haunts me more than anything.

2020’s list became laughably out of sorts as soon as we dove headfirst into the cesspool that became the pandemic. Lesson learned. I created 2021’s list with global disruption in mind–but I somehow failed to account for the personal disruptions that would come along this year.

Which is to say, another year gone, another list of resolutions left unresolved. At some point it might be worth pondering why I do this and whether I should keep doing it. And conveniently, I’ve already packed my typewriter. Makes it easier to avoid having a neat little list ready to go tomorrow morning.

Even so, there’s something worthy about having goals, even if you don’t meet them all. We all need something to aim for, and even if we don’t cross the threshold of accomplishment, we’ve at least moved forward.

I dialed back my typical list of 10 resolutions and came up with seven. Here’s my report from the last day of the year.

• Embrace the imperfect. (Isn’t it great that this was Resolution Number One?) It’s hard for me, honestly. I fall short of my own expectations all the time, and I’m pretty sure I forgive others more readily than I do myself. But I think I have gotten a touch better. This world and this life are messy, imperfect things, and I’ve tried to find the beauty therein.
  
• Love the dogs. This one became such a beacon of sorts. Last Christmas, I knew Taylor’s time was growing short, but obviously I couldn’t have known that it would end on Christmas Eve. And I also couldn’t have known that we’d end up adopting our little Millie Doodle. (Update: she is not little anymore.) Our puppies are a big part of our lives, and while we sometimes struggle to keep up with it all, I couldn’t be more grateful for the time we shared this year with Millie and Otis and especially our dear Taylor.
  
• Keep working from home. Well, it was a nice thought. But eventually the world righted itself, and we all went back to work, and it doesn’t look like we’ll have any kind of regular work-from-home world for some time. It’ll be fine. Fine. Everything’s fine.
  
• Stop reading the comments. I still fall victim to this now and again, but I’ve really done well to avoid reading them. I know it’s a privileged thing to do–to stay out of the merciless, mercury-hot bloodbath that is the social media comment box flame war–but I’ve simply run out of time to spend any more than I do wading through the muck. I just don’t care.
  
• Play. Done. And done well enough. I resolved this year to get out and have a fun activity, and I took up golf, and I practiced more than anything, and I really got better and I enjoyed it. And even though the mountains aren’t quite as flat as the piedmont, I’m hoping to find a golf course somewhere up yonder in Cullowhee to keep up with it. To note: I swung a golf club of some sort somewhere every month of 2021.
  
• Worry less. Fail. Fail bomb. Bad fail. I worried myself straight into a stress-induced health event at the end of the summer. I could stand to do better here.
  
• Testify to the light. I think I’ve done a lot here, and I think I could also have done a lot better. I’m not a terribly extroverted evangelical, but I am a believer, a person of faith, and I do wish deeply to share the love and comfort I find in my faith with others. God has been abundantly good to me, and it’s my duty to use whatever blessings I have to love and serve my neighbor.

Happy 2022, dear friends. It’s always a joy to share these words with anyone who cares to spend time reading them. I’ll have a new list of resolutions in a few weeks–or as soon as I can remember which box the typewriter’s in.

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