11th Day of Christmas: A New Year, New Adventures

We're a few days into 2014. Time passes too quickly sometimes. Too slowly at others. We had a nice New Year's Eve. Friends from church came over. We had soup and hors oeuvres. We played games. Board games, card games, dice games. The teenagers in the group pulled out their electronic devices, but we got them in on some games as well. No one was here past 11:30pm.

It's that time of year to make your resolutions. To be honest: I don't make New Year's resolutions. Never have; never will. I don't have a problem with you making them, if that's your thing. But it's not mine. Partly because I'm not good at setting goals like that. Partly because if I'm not already making some change happen in my life, then a resolution probably isn't going to make a difference (I suppose making goals could help with that). Partly because it would take some introspection to figure out what I need to change in my life and set some goals on how to make that happen (again with the goals!).

Okay, so maybe I need to be more goal-oriented. Can that be my resolution for 2014?

Goals are probably something I should take up more. Maybe my life would be different now. Maybe I'd be further along on some more successful path. Maybe I'd have that '65 Mustang rebuilt that's been sitting in the garage for years (wait, I must be thinking of someone entirely different than myself).

Goal: Be more adventurous. Be willing to take risks, and do new things. With discernment and moderation, of course.

Goal: Make a difference. In someone's life. Some where. Some how. Repeat. Daily as possible. (That whole "love thy neighbor" thing: do it.)

Goal: Be more grateful and less resentful. Complain less; forgive more.

Maybe those aren't that great of goals. Maybe I should be more concrete and specific.

Goal: Try and write another book this year. Fiction, I think. And look into having an agent this time, or a publisher that helps market better.

Goal: See A Prairie Home Companion before Garrison retires or we move from the Twin Cities. (We're actually working on a bucket list of things we want to do before we leave Minneapolis.)

Do those work? I know they're not the typical resolutions. I should be including stuff about exercising more (which right now I'm at the YMCA about 4 times a week), eating more healthfully (eating less and learning to not overeat is what I need to focus on),

* * * * * * * 

It's the 11th Day of Christmas. It's cold up here in Minnesota. And going to get colder. The governor called off school across the state for this coming Monday because of the temperatures. We're staying inside more than I'd like. But it's nice at the same time.

I read a book last year called Praying in Black and White for Men. It encourages men to doodle while they pray. Drawing becomes your form of prayer. I've done it off and on. I've done a few of them the last few days (a friend doing some drawing has encouraged me to do some more, plus we each got new sketch books for Christmas). The drawing above isn't really a meditative prayer drawing, but it's a prayer for the New Year.

A door open to new adventures. A path ahead to explore. Valleys, mountains. Ups, downs, turns, and bends in the road. You can see a little ways, but there's so much unknown.

Into the New Year we go!