On Resolutions

Santa came and left and now we are alone to face the cold winter and the beginning of 2019.

Hi Santa! Wait, that guy is skinny. What is he doing on a roof in mid-December with a bag? It must be an elf. There is no other logical explanation. 

How do you feel about New Years resolutions?  Better yet, how do you feel about 2019 arriving so quickly? This is how I feel about it.

Terrifying. Why doe time fly so fast? By the way, this is my first boy-friend, Luis. I met him when I was two and he broke my heart by not returning my kisses. It's ok, Luis, we can still be friends.

Here we are, day 23 of 365 and I have yet to blog once! Blogging more and more consistently is one of the things I would like to do for 2019. But overall, I do like New Year's Resolutions. There are the two schools of thought that say either 1) you make NY Resolutions or 2) start change the minute you realize you need a change. Why not have both? New Year's resolutions are so refreshing and silly but also really helpful to grow. Last year for example, I had several "growth" moments that I am grateful for and not grateful for. I grew by gaining weight (not so grateful) but also grew by doing things that made me feel uncomfortable like volunteering at a food kitchen for the needy. So going off of that (which was not a NY Resolution, just something I needed to do) I made resolutions for 2019. I might be talking a little in circles here but I'm excited about this years resolutions and also reviewing 2018. I thought of reviewing and planning by using the Examen. It is a noon exercise-prayer to examen five things that went right, what went wrong and asking God for help with five things for the rest of the day. I did it for the year for this blog and it is pretty easy. Thanks St. Ignatius for the tip! Here we go:

Name five things you did great and are thankful for for 2018. Here are my five.:

1. Going to daily mass when possible, and working on staying focused in mass.
2. Drinking more water.
3. Working on my posture. Yay bones.
4. Going for daily walks, even mini-ones.
5. Volunteering and reaching out to those in need.

Hooray! Good job!

Five things I could have done better....oh there are way more than five! But lets do five....

1. I should have taken naps when I was tired.
2. Eaten less junk food.
3. Shown more compassion for the people closest to me.
4. Studied something for my soul (books by saints, prayers, etc.)
5. I should have prepared for my days in advance instead of procrastinating, which stressed me out, and then I had anxiety, ate junk food, didn't sleep, was more selfish and needed naps etc...Procrastination is awful.

Looks like we are going to need help!

Five things to do in 2019! See? Here is where good and bad habits from 2018 can help form what to work on in 2019. Granted, we can't control life, but what we can control (our thoughts and emotions) we can work on that will help guide us to a better place.

1. Study and pray for the fruits of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is amazing, and all the fruits of the Spirit inject goodness in every aspect of my life from those pesky Excel spreadsheets at work, to being more compassionate with people I love. I have written one word for each of the fruits of the spirit at the top of my weekly calendar and each day I pray to the Holy Spirit to help me with whatever I wrote for that week. This week it is Self Control! Yes, oh yes how much I need to practice self control! Self control with my words, with chocolate (especially with chocolate) with being impulsive. Self Control.

Pick any one of these words for the week or month! The month of Love, the month of Gentleness. etc.

2. Read 2 books per month. This one is silly because: What is a book? If we are talking about Anna Karenina (which I will probably never read) then this simply can't apply. The Bible doesn't apply. I feel like I should re-word this to say "read 200 pages per month." But if we are deciding between a classic and Debbie Macomber, then it is also a little different. I thought about it but I'll stick with two books per month for now. Happy to report than I am on book two of two for January!

Never read with a cat.

3. Eat healthier. Um...about self control....and chocolate.... I had to think about what I was doing to not eat healthy and discuss it with myself for a while, negotiate that we could eat everything, just not all of it at the same time. We decided to have treats on Sunday only, and eat less of everything, but still everything everyday. We are not into crazy diets over here. Pasta, Pizza and Pumpkin Pie are still all very welcome!

Are those insects? Eek!

4. Exercise. Do you know that if you do one sit-up every day you will have done 365 sit ups by the end of the year?! That is a lot of sit ups! I started with one. I'm up to two per day. Just kidding. Actually, I finally looked up PopSugar workouts on Youtube and they have some good ones for comfortable librarians like me! I felt very accomplished having completed a ten minute work out. Hey, it is ten more minutes than what I did last year!

A little pinata can become a big one if it eats every day like a big pinata.

5. Relax. This is an important one. Last year I noticed, in my Annual Review or State of the Human, that I was taking way too many mortal things seriously. I know, I am a mortal and you are a mortal and mortal things are important. But all of these things, emails from work, work drama, house issues and things that "had" to get done were ruining my sense of peace and connection with God. They were making so much noise in my day that I couldn't find that good spot to pray and that good moment to listen. They were bull-dozing the Fruits of the Spirit. At the end of the day we are all going to die. It's a beautiful thing. I can't imagine getting email stress for eternity. But the point is that I need to remind myself to relax and let go of some of these mortal things that have absolutely nothing to do with my soul. Like caring about an issue but realizing that I'm not going to take it with me after I die. I can't even take my cats with me to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory so why should I get wound up about something much less meaningful that won't matter after death?

Deep thoughts to ponder!

On the cat front, the most important part, Fatty is doing ok. He is getting sub-cutaneous fluids several times a week and I feel like a murderer putting a needle in my kitty. It helps his kidneys out and he is dying a slow slow death as he eats very little. Most days he is a happy content cat, eats enough, purrs and fights with his brother. You would never guess he only has a quarter of kidney function! Bentley is getting fat like a walrus from eating all the food Fatty no longer eats.

Fatty always finds the only spot of sun. Here is is half asleep after his lunch.

I hope you have a great 2019! If you haven't made any resolutions, make some little ones! Five things that went right last year, five that you could have done better, and five to improve or to try. January is still fresh and young. One of my traditions is to clean out the bathroom cabinet before New Years and this year I did it in mid-January. I still count that as a win!

Write it out, it doesn't have to be fancy, and put it on your fridge. Hello 2019! Watch out!