How About That 2013? (Part 2)

      On January 1, 2013, I made a list of fifty things I might do in 2013.  These were not meant to be high pressure goals but just random thoughts about what lay ahead in the new year.  I checked in in March to see how that list was looking in the light of spring.  Now it's time to see what the mid way point in 2013 looks like.  I'm not going to review everything on the list but I'd like to consider three things that I have actually done and three things that I might still choose to do.

     In March I celebrated the progress made on kitchen improvements and hand surgery.  Neither of those items can be completely checked off the list as done but they continue to move forward.  Item number 12 seems to be a focus for now:  paring down possessions (see Dump It All).  That feels important and freeing.  I know I am also well aware of item number 13:  avoid accumulating even more possessions.   In April, I reveled in the stunning peace and beauty that is Yosemite.  Those few days definitely take the prize for being the highlight of 2013 so far.  I enthusiastically placed item number 7 on the list in January.  I was so jazzed to plan to participate in the A to Z Challenge.  That tower of enthusiasm crashed as April got under way and I moved on.  Some things just don't go the way you planned, you know?

     Reflecting in June on the list made in January makes me keenly aware of how much things change.  For some unknown reason, many of the items on the list don't capture my attention these days.  So be it.  Maybe they will come into focus again later but not now.  I am experimenting with item number 20:  accept the darkness.  I would make it much broader now.  I am learning to accept a lot of things as the way it is.  Not good, not bad. Just the way it is.  Number 28 (Learn what it means to make and apply my own rules to myself) seems to be a theme for these summer months.  I wonder where that will go. I suppose it will be influenced by number 38: engage in frequent and random conversations with myself.  Interesting thought, that one.  Sometimes I feel as if I am the only one available for me to talk to.  The people with whom I might want to talk are, for lots of reasons, just not available right now.  I am an observer, a recorder, and a reflector.  I have to know that a person wants to engage in real conversation before I begin to share any of those self to self conversations.  Real conversation means they will talk back about things that matter.

     In theory, I will check in again in September.  I expect that number 47 (Look for surprises) might be on the agenda.