Dropped in to check on my pal Flutie McD and found this neat post about Flutie's adaptation of the traditional list of New Year's resolutions. Don't have time to read her post? (Shame on you, she's super fun to read!) The concept is simple: chose one word or phrase to live by during the year. I love it. And I'm going to do it. So without further ado...
2012 is my year to
sew/sow
But Lina! That's TWO words!
Ahhh, yes my friends, it is two words... two words that are pronounced the same yet spelled differently (and with different meanings to boot). That's called a homophone. [insert tasteless iPhone joke here]
2011 ended on a pretty good note. Two important things were crossed off the omnipresent to-do list: potty training the toddler, and popping out a healthy baby.
With a new baby in the house, I don't have a clear plan of what all the year ahead will bring, but I do have two goals - two concrete goals. And looking at these goals in light of this one word challenge, each allows me elaborate them into the self-improving sort of goals that New Year's resolutions should be.
Sew: I want to sew. Plain and simple. I want to use the sewing machine, and make things. Create. Be creative, be crafty. Even more so, be utilitarian. Resourceful. Creativity doesn't necessarily mean wreaths and hairbows... I want to mend things, fix things, improve things, make-instead-of-buy things.
In the figurative sense, this year I'd like to mend some relationships, strengthen others, and create new ones. I'd even like to be crafty and sort of reinvent myself - the same me, but with a fearless and constructive purpose. Remodeled and Bedazzled in 2012, damnit.
Sow: Lord help me, I want to garden! We'll call 2011 a practice year. I attended the first Gardening Basics class at Cox Arboretum but never made it back for the rest. My much anticipated garden area was never tilled, then flooded and remained absolutely squish-sodden until mid June. My composter remains half-assembled in the box in the garage. Two Jiffy pot trays full of seedlings did produce a plethora of seedlings, some of which survived weeks of neglect and went on to actually be potted and produce viable vegetables in a container garden of sorts on our deck. The containers, by the way, are still all on the deck. I'd like to imagine that the cold will make them easier to clean when we reach those first few warm days of spring? And how handy... the half-empty potting soil bags are still there on the deck too...
This year, I WILL garden. How and where has yet to be hammered out, but I do know what. Sunflowers. Bell peppers, chili peppers, tomatoes. Basil and cilantro. Zucchini. I hope to swap seeds with a few gardening friends to attempt a few patches of "the three sisters" - corn, beans and squash, grown in the style of the Native Americans of the Midwest. May morning glory twine up the sides of our fence, and blueberry bushes find a home somewhere in the ground. For Mother's Day, you can tell my husband I want two apple trees. I want to make things grow, for the pure joy of it... and also for the pure produce of it.
And "sow" what? (haha) Let this additionally be a year of responsibility, and awareness. "As you sow, so shall you reap." Let me sow good things - intentions, thoughts, actions - and reap the benefits. And let me be reminded that bad seeds, lazy seeds, irresponsible and thoughtless seeds, will yield fruit of the same.
Sticking with the gardening theme, I hope these words in 2012 will lead to a more fruitful me. My overall goal is to have a Life Well Lived. So far, so good.
