I've never been much for resolutions, but I do set goals. My husband and I have done this for several years now. At times, entire years have been given theme names.
2006: Two-thousand-sucks
2007: Hail Mary
2008: Two-thousand-great
We didn't name 2009. We thought we had everything we wanted. As the year approached we were in the midst of a move and coming off the high of 2008. We had a sweet baby boy, my first novel had just been published, and we were returning to Oklahoma to join a family business--all accomplishments we'd striven toward for years. So, we didn't bother with making goals and giving the year a theme.
Boy, was that a mistake. The first day of 2009 began with a plane ride after two hours of sleep--not because we were partying, but because we had a sick baby. We got off the plane and went directly to the pediatrician. We went to Boston Market and ate chicken. Later, after Garrett had opened a jar of peanut butter for a snack, we learned first hand about the peanut butter botulism cases that were all the news in late '08 early '09. Garrett couldn't eat peanut butter for months afterward.
The year wasn't all that bad, but it was stressful. We filled the year with change, but we didn't make any plans about how to deal with those changes. We had a lot of success, but the stress didn't let us enjoy it.
Maybe it was because of the food we ate on New Year's Day. I read that some cultures believe that eating chicken on New Year's Day makes your life go backwards.
Maybe it was because we didn't make goals or assign a theme to the year.
Whatever it was, we're not going to have that stress again. This year we ate black eyed peas and greens--for luck and money--and we named our year. 2010 isn't going to happen to us. We're going to make it happen.
2010: On track again
No comments:
Post a Comment