My good and wise friend Liz Engstrom has got me thinking about where I stand when I look at my world. Perhaps because I’m myopic and can’t see much at all beyond about one foot from my nose, I’m very into what’s in the room with me, what I can understand based on what I see within a narrow radius. Liz takes the broader view. She has an eye for pattern across the broad terrain. I suspect that for change to happen, somebody must be operating from that broader perspective. She is a change agent. I am an observer. I can’t help but feel that together we are something important.
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In a burst of hopeful enthusiasm that befalls me every January, I decided to name the year 2012 as the year of finishing. I thought it would help me get stuff done. But I cleverly didn’t specify what I would be finishing in 2012, and now here I am halfway through February and I have finished nothing in particular.
So I guess if I’m going to finish something, I’d better make a dang list.
Things to finish in 2012:
My third novel (third draft close to done so this is in fact doable)
The mosaic window sills in the house remodel that will never end (four of seven completed so this is also doable)
Two free-lance magazine stories (two legitimate ideas and the research on one completed so this is also doable)
Lose 20 pounds. (This is my perpetual never accomplished goal, probably doable in some alternate universe where I have actual willpower)
OK. There’s my starter list.
Now I just need a schedule. But first, I must nap.
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I planted hellebore to see something blooming in the garden in February. This little guy fills the bill. And any day now, the daphne with its tiny intoxicating blossoms will kick in, too, and I will suddenly want to be outdoors again. Having grown up in places where winter covers everything with snow and blooming things disappear from sight for months, I still can’t believe my good fortune to have my way to Oregon. I’ll take the winter rain, thanks.
