I Believe for the New Year
I believe for the new year I will buy a pocket dictionary and stop looking up words on line.
I believe for the new year I will begin each morning with a meditative practice. It can be contemplative prayer. Sitting on the porch. Surveying the yard. Fingering the prayer beads my talented friend and Bead by Bead author Suzanne Henley made for me. Rubbing the face of my Mother Mary icon sprinkled with water from the Nazareth well. Something intentional. Will I end each day with such a practice? I doubt it, but I have to being somewhere.
I believe for the new year I will cancel my New York Times subscription. I will never again visit Huffington Post. I will keep my Daily Memphian and Tri-State Defender and Mississippi Today subscriptions because they tell me what’s happening in the local places I call home. These publications are news, not op eds. I believe for the new year I am done with op eds.
I believe for the new year I will read a book a week (unless the book is over 400 pages, then it can get two weeks.) I will start this practice today with The Book of Lamentations written by Rosario Castellanos, and I will work my way through the 12 paperbacks my mother gave me for Christmas last year that I’ve wanted to read all at once in a block of time, but life hasn’t given me a block of time with all 12 books at my fingertips. Starting today, I am taking the time, given or not.
I believe for the new year I will pick a Democratic candidate to get behind for President of the United States and stop waiting for something to make up my mind for me.
I believe for the new year I will get off Facebook. I will leave my blog synched to my FB Author’s Page, but I will not check comments posted there. I will explain the situation to readers, invite them to comment directly on the website, and live with the consequences.
I believe for the new year I will make crosses out of leftover redwood planks from our deck, make a cool-as-hell Dead Beans costume for Lundi Gras, keep making dryer lint art, keep loving my husband and indulging my dog, keep doing that which gives me great joy.
I believe for the new year I will take concrete steps to make my life more of what I want it to be.
I believe for the new year….
susanne
I believe you are wise to take these steps to make your life richer in ways that matter.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thanks, I hope so. And may your new year be filled with happiness.
Donna Weidner
I believe I will incorporate your second point into my life. Thanks for sharing, Ellen…and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
It can only be a quick minute, but I am hoping it sets the tone for the day. Let me know if you do it, too, and how it works out for you. And Happy New Year to you!
Luanne
This is lovely. I love that you believe. And that you believe you can accomplish these things. I believe you can.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you. I hope you are feeling better (getting my WordPress blog posts once a week on Mondays puts me a bit behind the news) and are heading into the New Year well.
Joanne Corey
Brava, Ellen! May 2020 be all you believe it will be and more!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
And also to you! e
Patricia Suttle
Hi, Ellen,
Can you believe this— Neither my husband nor I have ever opened a Facebook account, and we still don’t want to. Does this make you smile?
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Yes, it does. One of our sons and daughter-in-law aren’t on FB either. Y’all are ahead of the curve. Wishing you the best of the new year!
Marie A Bailey
Happy New Year! This is the best goal for the new year I’ve seen yet: “I believe for the new year I will take concrete steps to make my life more of what I want it to be.”
Ellen Morris Prewitt
If only I can remember it. When someone asked me last night what my resolutions for NY were, I couldn’t remember! So your repeating my words back to me might help them stick.
Evelyn
Hi Ellen…
How to respond briefly is my question? Maybe limit myself to the first two that pop in my head… Well, 1st, ….night time prayers are grand, kinda full circlish, and I think they may be more realized in my NY. And 2nd, ….your “dryer findings art” of course inspires me. Thank you! And HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!
Love, Evelyn
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Hey, Evelyn! I love the concept of “more realized.” It sounds so supportive. I’m enjoying the dryer lint and candy wrapper art. And as a friend pointed out, I have pretty much unlimited supply. 🙂 Love to you-e