Happy New Year

     I couldn't let the day go by without making a Happy New Year comment. I have not been  blogging very much since my classes ended. Oh, well. It is what it is.
     New Year's always brings to mind resolutions. I gave up creating resolutions for myself quite a long time ago. The last two I made were when the kids were in jr. high and high school. One of those years I gave up wearing makeup. It was costly and time consuming and I was going through some health issues that didn't allow me the effort to sit and do makeup every morning. I found it quite nice not to have to think about buying the makeup, changing shades with the seasons, changing looks with the trends and generally hiding myself behind the artificial look of it all. There have been twice since then when I have actively sought out makeup, but never in the context of wearing it for very long. For both my children's weddings I opted for some simple mascara and blush. I thought it would look nice in the pictures. I don't think anyone can even tell I have it on, so I really think it was probably a waste of time. It was, yet again, one of those "it makes me feel better at the time" ideas. I believe it was the year after I gave up makeup that I decided to further simplify my life by not wearing a watch. There were clocks all over the place and I really felt I was being a prisoners to the little black hands on my wrist. I have always been a clock watcher, even in grade school. So, gone was the watch. I really haven't missed it and a funny thing has developed in my brain. I find I can just about guess what time of the day or night it is just by the light in the sky or thinking back to the last time I checked the time and following my movements. I'm not often right-on with the time but for most things it is near enough.
     So, I was reading a magazine today and I came upon an article about changing your life in the new year. Hmmmmmm... There were a couple of items that sounded interesting, such as: doing one nice thing for one person everyday, even if they didn't realize you were doing it, volunteering in your community, pledging to donate every day, week or month to something worthwhile. All of these would make great resolutions and if you were able to follow through with the one you chose, would probably change your life in some small way.
     I was thinking last night about what type of resolutions I would make, if I was so inspired to return to the custom. Here are some I came up with:
     * Laugh with my students every day.
     * Hand out Tootsie Roll Pops once a month to my students for no reason.
     * Work on my writing more often.
     * Give someone a compliment every day.
     * Think about cancer. Be grateful.
     * Write more letters. Actual letters with stamps and everything.
     * Pay for some one's Starbucks order behind me once in a while.
Most of these are open ended. And most of them are totally doable, especially laughing with my students and giving someone a compliment every day. Those should be easy. The rest I really want to work on, but I won't call them a resolution because I think every life is a life in progress and sometimes making a resolution to do one thing or another absolutely doesn't allow for veering off the path, and a sidestep may just get you where you want to be.
Happy New Year!