I know the new year has come in, 2023 with all its promise of being better than 2022, of being a fresh start, a new beginning, the turning of a page in a calendar (or, actually, a new calendar) being akin to turning over a new leaf. But, I had already decided, last year (or was it the year before?) that I was not going to make any more new year’s resolutions. I never keep them, blah blah blah, etc. But change is good. It is good for the mind and soul and just good for your life. I started some positive changes last year and I want to keep it up.
So, what will it be this year? Emotional maturity? A greater sense of personal responsibility? Stop being such an introvert and become more social, expand my circle of friends and acquaintances?
Chopsticks. I have decided, I have promised myself, that I will eat most of my meals with chopsticks instead of flatware. And not most, either. I will eat as many of my meals with chopsticks as possible. And I have been. it has been more difficult than OI thought it would be. but it’s something new. use new muscles, exercise some other part of the brain, fire off new synapses, learn a new skill. I have wanted to do this for a long time…and I don’t know why.
Minimalism. Or something like it. Some less regimented version of it. I want to spend the year letting go of some stuff – some books, some clothes… I see these YouTube videos with these clean, open spaces, no clutter, and I think of how peaceful and pleasant it would be to be the kind of person who lives like that, with minimal possessions in an uncluttered photogenic living space sparely accentuated with neutral colors and tasteful modern decor, but that kind of austerity is a step too far for me. I just want less stuff. And I want to stop bringing new stuff into my house unless I need it. So, a more minimal existence is what I want…so I can spend less money this year and have less packing to do when, or if, I move.
Cooking. Nothing special. nothing big. Nothing wild. I want to find some dishes with easy-to-understand recipes that I can add to my current rotation of maybe fifteen dishes. A new pasta dish, maybe. A simple rice dish. A few air fryer recipes. Some one-pot meals for the slow cooker. I want try out more recipes this year than I did last year and be able to make at least ten of them (maybe five) from memory.
Reading. A book a month, for now. And maybe, hopefully, it will rekindle the book addiction I had when I was a kid. But…maybe nothing will. Maybe all of us who are trying to recapture our glorious bookworm days, maybe we are deluding ourselves, trying to re-escape into the word- and story-filled world we used to live in. Maybe we can’t. Maybe we – and I – just have to learn to live with it and stop wanting so hard. But, I miss those worlds and being able to immerse myself in them with no effort whatsoever. And I miss that part of myself. I miss the other half of my relationship to the written word.
So, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing grand, or nearly impossible, just some reasonable changes, reachable goals, some small ways to keep changing between now and the new year.
I hope you have a great 2023. Thank you for reading.
Mark Earnest Johnson 