Friday, January 30, 2015

(Belated) New Years Resolutions/Intentions/Whatever

I'm sort of a half-hearted intention-setter or resolution-maker, whatever you want to call it. I make 'em and then, quite often, break 'em with nary a second thought.

This year, I do have some pretty significant goals that I'm actually excited to work towards:

1. Read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and really get serious about reducing our possessions. Its been a three-year journey of decluttering and changing the way we think about material objects and I'm glad its been a slow and steady process. I definitely feel lighter and more content with fewer things, particularly when those items are high quality and bring me joy. This book is apparently The Decluttering Book, so I'm excited to read it and implement some of its advice.

2. Maintain a regular meditation practice. Consistency over quantity. In whatever form feels right, whether it be in silence in front of my home altar, walking meditation in the snow, yoga practice, guided meditations over podcasts. I've given up on trying to be perfect when it comes to finding the "right" form or method, I'm just going to do me instead.

3. Run a half-marathon. A friend and I decided last year that since we're apparently hot shit, to run a half-marathon this fall. This is terrifying to me, who resembles an arthritic gorilla while running and has only (once) managed to complete a 10K and not a graceful one at that. I said I was going to do it though, and I shall. It promises to be ugly, but I'll at least have earned a gluttonous brunch and two or three mimosas after the fact.

4. Complete an obstacle race. Same friend, actually a group of us together, and I'm really pumped for this one. Both the preparation and the actual race.

5. Participating effectively in the family garden. It all went to hell last year and I'm going to take on a more active role in growing our food this year, since I'm the family member who works part-time. I'm reading The All-New Square Foot Gardening book and planning all the wonderful things I'm going to effortlessly grow in abundance. Ha.

6. Make many of my own skin-care and hair-care products. As a lifelong lover of skin care products and makeup, most of which have begun to irritate my skin in recent years and as someone who is  very interested in the concept of zero-waste and low-waste living, I've decided to take this on . I've stocked up on shea butter, coconut butter, glycerin, almond oil, beeswax and lanolin and I'm excited to make some new stuff. First up, chapstick for my poor little guy whose lips have been cracked and bleeding all winter.

7. Continue to improve my commitment to make things myself (as per above), buy secondhand, borrow and repurpose. This weekend I've been knitting some washcloths and making cloth napkins. I've fallen back into the habit of nipping out to Target to pick something up for the sake of ease and affordability, but that's not living my values. I need to slow down and do a gut check before spending, evaluate needs vs. wants, and consider the items I want to bring into my life.

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