A most Happy New Year to everyone!
Hope springs eternal. Which is why I haven’t given up writing on this little postage stamp spot in the digital world. I like taking the time to think about and reflecting on what happens during the course of my daily life. I think it does me good to go over these thoughts and events and try to make sense of them, placing them in a somewhat ordered fashion in my overall view of myself. Changes are sometimes easier to see if one can compare them to what was before and see the differences along the way.
I won’t say 2023 was a bad year, but it was certainly filled to the brim. I completed my first university degree (General Studies), became a Master Gardener, became a real estate agent, became a brown belt in jiujitsu, became a novice Benedictine Oblate, became a mother-in-law, and lost a friend. The person who ended that year is quite different from the one who started it. In the same way, I hope the person I am today will be noticeably different than the one who begins 2025. Not in a paper trail of accomplishments, but perhaps in the development and strengthening of both virtue and character.
In 2024, I hope to:
- Write one blog post a week
- Expand upon my prayer time, especially in the evenings
- Complete the Literary Life reading challenge (read more here and join in!)
- Learn French
- Grow and eat more produce from our own garden
- Get a basis in Horticulture through independent study
- Get a basis in History through independent study
I fully intend to keep myself occupied, but there is a noticeable lack of deadlines in all of this. That is deliberate. I still have two children to get through high school, my father’s dementia is progressing downwards, and I am planning to take on more responsibility in our construction business. The goals I have listed will be done in-between these other, more important duties.
While I may somewhat miss the structured learning I’ve gone through the past several years, there is no reason I cannot make my own (flexible) structure and, indeed, I have done so. Each day of the week is devoted, in part, to one or more of these goals. I’ve written it out and it is displayed by my bed, so I can see it each morning and each evening. It’s not much time, perhaps an hour or two, but just having that framework will be, I think, quite helpful in keeping me moving forward and not getting lost in whatever tasks I need to do for my family on a given day.
I am quite looking forward to this year. I hope you can say the same.
House of Chaos 