IT'S STILL THE NEW YEAR ...

We're fifteen days into 2026! Fifteen days!! 

Several years ago I wrote about New Year's Resolutions--I called mine Intentions for the new year.

Some people do their bah-humbug routine when resolutions are mentioned.

Then--I saw something new (to me)--New Year's Dissolutions.

That's right, dissolutions. All about--giving up.

-----

Okay, doesn't sound like much of anything, does it? After all, sometimes our resolutions or intentions were about giving up--coffee, alcohol, tobacco, sweets, games . . . .

But I think there's something in there for us. I came up with three levels of giving up:

• EASY
• MIDDLIN'
• CHALLENGING

Let's explore:

The easiest, seems to me, is about things. Stuff. Excess physical possessions.

Examples:

• clothing that no longer fits
• clothing that is out of style (though this bothers me not much a-tall)
• books I won't read again
• music books (not needed now that I've given up the organ)
• movie DVDs and music CDs that I haven't watched/listened to for years

You get the idea. You can make your own list.

The middlin' category gets a little closer to home--our activities and behaviors:

• too many appointments
• too many commitments (even good things, like fitness classes or courses in one of our hobbies
• too many "haftas"--as in, I hafta visit my friend every Saturday, or I hafta go to the nursing home and help out, or I hafta take my turn reading to little kids at the library (sometimes these are "shoulds")

Finally, the challenging category:

• ourselves--beyond possessions, beyond activities, beyond behaviors
• what is there about this self each of us inhabits that can be improved by giving up an attitude or a belief? Or a relationship? Or a job?
• how do we go about that? How would I know what to give up?

-----

As you have already figured out, there are no right-or-wrong answers here. And this is very definitely NOT a one-size-fits-all. There is no one size.

My excess physical baggage may be just what you want or need. Great! I'll take that stuff to the thrift store or the library and donate it. If I can't quite gift it, I'll put it on ebay or one of the other vending sites.

My excess behaviors and activities won't be yours. Maybe your tolerance for a busy life is higher than mine. My low-activity tolerance allows me time to think, meditate, work out stories to write or pictures to paint. But then, I'm not you.

My challenging category is something I've been working on for decades. The only lesson I've learned is this: I learn as I go along. I give up something; how do I feel about that? I explore new ways of thinking, new beliefs; I read biographies and memoirs (all kinds); I research the lives of writers, painters, poets, members of religious communities, and I struggle to understand what each person thinks, feels, understands, and then communicates. If there's something for me in that exploration, then I keep it, and go forward. If not, I walk on and look some more.

-----

Here's a happy thought: A new year can begin any time! In our culture, and in this present day, January 1st is the signal for a new year to begin. In reality, any day is the beginning of a new year. (Remember this saying? "This is the first day of the rest of my life." Cliche now, but once had some significance. Maybe it still does.) 

Bottom line: You can choose when to start your new year.

An artist I follow online has a mini-course in setting a creative brief. One of her first comments was this: You don't have to start this now. Your "new year" can start any time. You will be reviewing your own work, and that can start again and again.

-----

I wish you good fortune in your search for a new year. If you choose "dissolutions," I hope that works out for you.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

PLANS!

It's that time of year again--

I got that far and stopped. WHY is it that time of year? Can't we make plans any old time? How about September 10th? Or July 18th? Or--okay, how about your birthday? Or my birthday? 

If we really stop and take a look at our lives, aren't we "making plans" all the time? 

For example:

• my daughter and I spent over an hour on the phone this morning with varying success:
• trying to move an appointment from one day to another
• trying to figure out why one medical provider isn't doing certain things any longer
• trying to find out why two medical providers need the same test--and can it be done once for both
• time "on hold" better spent on other projects (never mind being #2 in the queue)

That's just one morning's "planning" in our lives. I don't have an outside job, so we'd naturally think, wouldn't we, that I'm available any old time? But my availability often requires a driver who isn't me.

Okay, another example. Today, Wednesday, my daughter has the day off from work. We made tentative plans for things around the house and yard. Now that we spent most of the morning engaged in the appointment book blues, we had to make different plans. (shuffle, shuffle)

-----

I know none of this is unique to us, nor to you. In current parlance, "it is what it is." But, dang, I sure wish it wasn't!

To prepare for this post, I did some online research for appropriate/pithy quotations about planning--making plans--anything in that neck of the woods. Here are some samples of what I found:

E. B. White improved my world every time I read some of his essays. And because of that connection, I enjoyed my world a whole lot more. I didn't have to do a lot of planning, either.

I like this one a lot--and I've found I can do both, wish and plan.

Sound practical advice. 

-----

So what about plans that don't bear fruit? Or that seem to fizzle out? Or leave us feeling--I don't know, cheated maybe. Or dangling . . . .

Some suggestions--maybe it wasn't time for that plan to work out. Or maybe we hadn't thought it through. Or, if my Grandma Jenkins had it nailed--"I didn't hold my mouth right!"

-----

I'll end on a humorous note:

Have a wonderful wonderful week--with or without a plan!

Blessings to all for 2026!

Thursday's Child

 

AFTERMATH
[This essay appeared many years ago, and yet it remains true for me as we settle into a new year, 2026.]

Whether you started Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and took down all the decorations on December 26th or started Christmas on December 25th and celebrated the full 12 days (through January 6th), there's more to come.

Not more Christmas celebrating, exactly. But whatever transformations you felt, whatever new feelings you experienced, these you carry into the new year.

-----
In 1959, 20th Century Fox made a film called Say One For Me, starring Bing Crosby as Father Conroy, with Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner as major players in the story. One of the songs in that production was called "The Secret of Christmas."

Here are the words of the refrain, written by Sammy Cahn:

It's not the glow you feel when snow appears,
It's not the Christmas card you've sent for years,
Not the joyful sound when sleigh-bells ring,
Or the merry songs children sing.

The little gift you send on Christmas day,
Will not bring back the friend you've turned away;
So may I suggest The Secret of Christmas
is not the things you do at Christmastime,
But the Christmas things you do all year through!

-----
What are the "Christmas things" we do?

Well, there's merry-making! Parties (the ones you give, the ones you go to), gift-giving . . . .

There's the uber-busy business of shopping, decorating, baking cookies, making candy, writing cards, planning dinners, knitting scarves, buying new clothes . . . .

For some folks there's a Christmas pageant or play, a cantata, rehearsals and getting one's self and/or the kids to the rehearsal hall . . . .

Or how about visiting shut-ins who don't have family to celebrate with? Taking small gifts to nursing homes and hospitals for patients and caregivers? Buying poinsettias to brighten the patient's room?

-----
Those are some of the Christmas things people do. And as soon as Christmas is "over," whenever that is, we go back to regular activities. To be fair, I don't think we actually forget to do these things--they just drop to a lower place in the list of priorities.

As the song's messages suggests, Christmas isn't only one time a year. The things we do at that mid-winter celebration can be carried on throughout the next twelve months. 


So how would a list of Christmas Things To Do All Year Through look?

How about this:

~Give a no-reason party for a few people you love to see. Buy each one a little gift if you want to.

~Write notes to folks throughout the year--tell them how much you appreciate them; encourage them during difficult times; congratulate them when they have good news.

~Knit/crochet scarves for people who come to the shelters in your area. Or hats. Don't knit or crochet? Buy some pretty items and donate them to the shelter. If you're really ambitious, make lapghans (small afghans suitable to keep laps warm) for folks in nursing homes who sit a lot.

~Volunteer to help with school or church programs--backstage work, making costumes, helping actors learn their lines; or take part yourself--try out for a role, sing in the chorus, play the piano at rehearsal.

~Get a list of shut-ins from your church or neighborhood community center. Send notes. Order small bouquets and deliver them. If you have the time, go for a short visit (five or ten minutes means a lot to someone who has no visitors).

~Read to someone who has trouble seeing.

-----
Best of all, make your own list. You know what you can do and like to do. See what you can come up with to help someone else get a little better quality of life. If you're already into the All-Year-Through feeling, you are a blessing, and you are blessed. You don't get a badge to sew on your jacket or a pin to wear or a certificate . . . but the Christmas things you do all year through will make your life, and someone else's, merry and bright.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child