Okay. I know. The flip into a new calendar year doesn’t automatically make things better…but dang, it’s gonna feel good to kick 2020 to the curb!
2020 was a year of challenge and change – some awesome and exciting, and some downright disgusting: re-entry into work after recovery from spinal surgery, the loss of my novel into a digital black hole, COVID, my mother’s sudden death, our daughter’s graduation and first year at college, social upheaval, our move to a new town, a new role at work, a new boss, election hoo-ha. Yikes. Don’t “they” say that we should limit the amount of change in our lives to reduce stress, anxiety, and increase health and well-being?
Right.
So…ups and downs. Like any year, really, but on steroids.
But here’s the deal. In all this, I learned a lot about myself. What I’m willing to tolerate. What I can overcome. What I can accomplish. What I struggle with. Grace. Forgiveness. Loving my enemies. And…most importantly…putting God first (failed often, but when I did it was ALWAYS better).
I’m not a New Years resolution kind of guy. I can’t keep the Ten Commandments, so why pile on the disappointment? What I can commit to is effort and progress. So here’s my 2021 focus areas for progress:
- Faith
- Get membership for family at a LCMS congregation – Holy Cross or Immanuel (Prior Lake)!
- Read the Bible more often in the morning before I start work
- Family
- COVID be damned, go on a date somehow…more than once…!
- Get non-college family away on a vacation during the winter months (February)
- Help Ethan and Erikka get to where they want to go in their short college careers
- Keep in touch with Dad beyond just checking in on him – send him things of interest
- Writing
- Increase my activity on my blog
- Create story map done for “The Cindering” (working title) and write out key scenes
- Keep writing poetry; it’s good medicine
- Work
- Create career “wish list” for the last (hopefully) 15 years before retirement (CRAZY to think about)
- Be even bolder in building out and communicating my points of view
How about you? What have you learned about yourself this year? How did 2020 help you grow? Where do you still feel stuck (which is perfectly fine – we’re all there, too)? What’s one thing you’d like to see happen in 2021 that is in your control?
For me, I can do nothing apart from the will of God, and so to the will of God I will go for answers.
Blessings on your 2021. May it bring you joy, peace, and growth.
a tilting of air 