Root Cellar

Resolutions

By KRISTIN BARRON
Posted 1/15/20

I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions. Dieting and exercising more—two of the most common resolutions every year—are not for me, commendable as they may be.

Sure, I …

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Root Cellar

Resolutions

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I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions. Dieting and exercising more—two of the most common resolutions every year—are not for me, commendable as they may be.

Sure, I try to recommit to my desire to make sure all the recyclables actually get into the recyclable bin. I try to eat up the leftovers.

This is the state of my first-world New Year’s resolutions.

But, since I began working a nightshift job, my priorities have simplified and become more basic. My jumbled mind comes up with such contradictory challenges, such as “get more sleep, but sleep less and do more.” Yes, more sleep would be ideal and might lead to more ambition, but then there would be no time to do anything and nothing would get done.

My existence has been winnowed down to the basics of eating, sleeping, laundry and keeping gas in the car. I only think I will read all those stacked up books and past issues of “The New Yorker” magazine. After all, waking up at 3 p.m. with the desire to cook a proper dinner for the crew, I find that I am just not hungry yet and I am still so tired that I continue to doze and loll away the time on the couch looking at mindless memes on the internet. “Doing more” rarely seems to work out without an aggressive push of will. You see my conundrum?

Making resolutions for the New Year has ancient roots. The Babylonians, who were the first to hold New Year’s celebrations, are said to have made promises to the gods to pay debts and return borrowed items, according to www.history.com. They recognized the beginning of the New Year in March in accordance with the planting of crops. The ancient Romans established the New Year as January 1 in about 46 B.C. The month was named for Janus, the two-faced god who was able to look backward into the past year and forward to the future. The early Christians adopted the first day of the year as a time to think about past mistakes and decide to do better in the future.

According to U.S. News & World Report, 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. Despite our bleak track record, we all keep making them. Most often, failure is due to vague and unattainable goals and expectations. People become discouraged.

So, my hope this year is to focus on short-term, realistic goals like read an article or short story instead of looking at social media and declutter my house one room at a time. And maybe, just maybe, I will find a new job.

The year 2020 seems off to a brutal and surreal start. War drums are beating. People are knitting mittens for koalas that have been burnt in the Australian fires. Things are falling apart. All I can really say is, as always, I hope to bring more kindness to the world.

2020, new year, resolutions

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