I have a friend who has a soft feather pillow he’s owned since he was a kid. He’s now in his mid-fifties. That pillow has been places. It’s been to Pennsylvania on a plane. It’s been to Detroit on a train. It’s been across country in a pickup. And it’s picked up passengers along the way, little critters that feed on dead skin cells. Yep, that baby is loaded with dust mites. Invisible to the naked eye; but in microscopic images those mites look like something from prehistoric ooze–not something you want to cozy up to at night.
What things, habits, beliefs, memories, people, do you hang onto? Is it time to let them go?
A co-worker gave up lattes to afford a gym membership. I gave up writing The Great American Novel to vacuum the carpet. Doesn’t seem like a fair trade.
What have you given up? Was it worth the sacrifice?
I spent New Year’s Eve driving around downtown looking for my tribe. Not a creature was stirring. The only place open was a liquor store. I sauntered in and bought a miniature bottle of Chardonnay from a clerk who was wearing a bright turquoise shirt unbuttoned to the navel, revealing a tattoo on his chest. “Nice shirt,” I said, and drove home with my two-dollar wine and drank a fifth of the bottle and it tasted like cat piss.
Someone said, “The way you spend New Year’s Eve is how you will spend the rest of your year.” God, I hope not. Someone else said, “Keep on doing what you’re doing, and you’ll keep on getting what you’re getting.”
Are you happy, doing what you’re doing? If not, what changes will you make?
This morning I wrote a list of my regrets, the top twelve things I wish I had done in 2014. Then I crossed out the word REGRETS at the top of the page and wrote the word GOALS. These are my intentions for 2015. One per month. I might not succeed at reaching them all, but at least I won’t look back, never having tried.
Do you have any regrets? What are your goals?
Questions to ponder.
And for you literary types: Are you a pantser in life, or do you plot everything out in advance? Where in the library would we find the Book of You? Romance? Travel? Mystery? Fantasy? Inspiration? Where would you like it to be? How does your Chapter One begin in 2015?
