2021

I’m late on resolutions or manifestations or intentions. I was afraid of getting caught up in the moment and overcommitting. But I have narrowed down my goals for this year. Balls to the walls. Here we go.

~Enjoy reading without feeling guilty.

~Master wearing a bra without letting it slip off my left shoulder. I can barely reach the hooks for the bra. How can I attach a paper clip? Hmmmm.

~Buy Vintage chairs big enough for patting Mim and has my love of patterns

~Take tons of photos with my new camera and master manual mode.

~Write regularly.

Re- write and edit.

Submit writing at least 25 times before June to anywhere- either essays, queries for book, articles…

~Save at least a small amount of money.

~Become a birth photographer. Photograph or assist at least one birth. Let the pictures tell the story, like the photograph I admire below.

~Listen. Listen more than I talk. Listen to my children.

~Dream big—Continue dreaming about the Land Trust idea.

My land trust idea is a 10 year plan. I will purchase 30 or so acres with some sort of water access- creek, marsh, lake, river? And including 12 or so friends and family to live in a community of sorts. There will be giant flemish bunnies. A pasture with cows and sheep and a horse. Oh, and miniature donkeys. Definitely miniature donkeys. Tin can swimming pools. Barefoot children. A golf cart for Mim to drive!? And cottages or air streams. My house is going to be a Southern cottage with a big front porch and two freight car containers will connect off the back- one will be full of beds for all my grandchildren and the other will be my studio for my piddling. Red wagons on oyster shell drives. I’m going to put my house near the entrance to the property because Mim and I like to watch people come and go. We will have a wooden platform under a huge oak tree for kids to put on shows or people to play the fiddle and banjo. Sunflowers will grow taller than the houses. We will collect our berries and cherry tomatoes in big wicker baskets. If we sell stuff like pottery or cut flowers, it will be on the honor system. Sleeping dogs. Tire swings. Kids hunting for sassafras root to chew.

~Consider getting tiny bluebird tattoos for my fiftieth birthday March 26, 2022.

~Allow music to enter my soul on a daily basis.

~Speak up when people are wrong. There are absolute truths. People need fat in their food. People are beautiful. All are welcome. Everybody is somebody’s baby. Withholding dessert from your children as a punishment is dumb. Food has no moral value. Cheating and lying hurts so bad. Capital punishment is wrong. White people need to listen and learn. Men who intimidate are hateful and should be brought down. The patriarchy is ugly and reprehensible. Equal pay for all- including all women, all races, all people with disabilities. I protest, I write, I speak, not to change the world but so the world doesn’t change me. Secrets have no place in a healthy family. Jimmy Carter is one of my idols. Science is real. Neutrality can be wrong. One is either anti-racist or racist.