Welcoming in 2014!
- At January 01, 2014
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
2
Good morning and Happy New Year and Rose Parades to you! Last night was one of the first times in a long time I was well enough to really celebrate New Year’s Eve, and we had the almost perfect set-up – an early dinner with friends, then home to watch the ball drop and make a toast. It was really fun to be able to be out and about, in a cool restaurant with great new friends. (I can fully recommend the salted caramel milkshake and the delightful airy (and gluten-free) tempura-esque eggplant wedges at new restaurant The Tipsy Cow, which also had really nice service, a rarity in the Seattle area!) Oh, and thanks to Karen Weyant for putting Unexplained Fevers on her best of 2013 books list!
So, I’m thinking about what we invite – and don’t invite – into our lives in 2014. I’m not much for new-agey-self-help, but I do think that it can’t hurt to invite in good things and close the door on the bad.
So, instead of resolutions, here’s what I’m inviting into my life in 2014:
–Spending more time with people I like – writers, friends, family.
–Doing things that actually make me feel happy – music, art galleries, visiting bookstores, going to the woods and muontains, maybe even some dancing if my ankles can hold up.
–Writing!
–Health – and I know more than most that only so much of our health situation is under our control -but I want to embrace doing good things for our bodies, appropriate sleep, gentle exercise, food that tastes good and is good for us. Don’t focus so much on the stuff that’s wrong with me, and more on the things I can do and enjoy.
–Letting good opportunities come to me, instead of scrambling so much. (Maybe scrambling is part of the writing life, but I want to do less of it this year.) More thankfulness for the good things I have.
–A better balance between paid and unpaid work, and the opportunity to do work I genuinely enjoy.
–More book awards and money (crossing fingers!)
–More Good News of all types!
–More day trips!
Things I’m closing the door on from 2013:
–Stressing out over things that just aren’t that important.
–Making work the priority over fun, relationships, writing, health, happiness.
–So much time at the doctor’s offices.
–Letting negative emotions rule my days – frustration, jealousy/comparisons, general grumpiness.
What are you inviting into your 2014? What are you ushering out the door?
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
Kelli RA
Hi J9– Great post! I like what you are inviting into your life!
I wrote a beautiful comment in response and somehow lost it. So I will try again. What I’m inviting into my life in 2014– good news, more happiness, positive success, more fun adventures with friends, more real connection, more downtime, more play, more living life (less internet), passive income, more winning book prizes, good health, good mental health, more bravery, more long form content (books!), more organization, more of all good things.
Many similar things.
I think this year I’m working on making better choices with what I do with my time. Though I think I’m always doing this. 😉
Happy New Year to you and Glenn! I hope it’s amazing and full of good health, good success, good love!
xo
Mary Alexandra Agner
Jeannine, just now catching up on folks’ blogs but I did want to let you know that I adore the attitude you’re espousing here and am going to try it myself in the new year.