The Big Empty has been more empty of late. Busy does not begin to describe what I’ve been lately. My “busy” is not the same as everyone else’ “busy”. I do have a lot of downtime in which to fill the big empty, but that time has gotten away from me. I’ve honestly been more interested in work than ever before and I’ve filled some spare time with creative professional projects leaving little creativity or steam for my personal projects. I am hoping to rectify that in the coming months, but I know “me” well enough to say “me” is not good at sticking to a plan if that plan is nebulous and an unstructured statement of intent.
That being said, I do have some concrete plans or at least some “want to do” statements for the new year. I never really make resolutions other than the same one I state at the beginning of every year…. “I will win a lotto jackpot. Just you wait.” and I’m still waiting. Anyway, my actual “want to do” list is similar to others I’ve made in the past and they’re backburnered inevitably by the “have to get done with” lists. But here they are in no particular order –
Study more Spanish – Each year I try and fail… some times multiple times… to get on a language learning schedule. I was hoping that a game developed by a polyglot and his team would help, but I have not been playing it. The game is called Fluyo and it’s good… just buggy when I tried it and I’m sure it’s better now. That one and another called WonderLang I hope to dive into in the coming months. It’s available on steam if you’re interested.
Finish a novel – This might sound ambitious, but I’ve been writing off and on for a long time on several works that, if I focus on one, might actually get finished. I’m not sure if the urban fantasy / sci-fi one is the focus or possibly the fantasy, but one way or another, I’d like to finish or at least make some good progress towards that end on at least one of them this year.
Work out more – I’ve been slacking. Sure I’ll go for the occasional walk and I go to the gym sometimes, but I don’t do it with any intentionality. I don’t like to “gamify” exercise and I’m not competitive so I don’t hold myself accountable to other people’s progress. Not sure how I’ll accomplish this other than discipline…. Have you met me? That’s a foreign concept.
Mostly I’m going to remain hopeful and try to have a positive attitude. It’s hard to do with any awareness of the world in which we live. Hope is difficult to cultivate and even harder to keep alive when the conditions are harsh. I plan to try, though. I hope you all have a wonderful coming year full of peace or adventure… maybe a bit of both.
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” — Corrie Ten Boom