Our Anniversary, and New Years' Resolutions

Tonight, we're going out for a casual dinner, and then to a live free concert on the Annapolis City Dock, and fireworks display. When we told our friend James about our plan, he emailed me the photo of fireworks for 4th of July last year with the comment, "I think it was warmer then."

Tomorrow is (as always) our day for introspection. We don't do resolutions per se, but we do have some focuses and priorities for the coming year - something I'd always thought of as Spring Cleaning of the Soul (don't remember who I borrowed that phrase from, but love the image):

one if by land, and two if by sea: Stretch our horizons by driving to one place we've never been before and anchoring in two places we've never anchored before. Stretch our brains (especially critical now that we no longer go to jobs) by reading one non-fiction book per month. I read somewhere that only 1% of Americans do this. (The reading, not the anchoring LOL)

tame the paper tiger: We still have no good filing system, now more critical than ever as storage for papers is so limited. Filing our income taxes last year was a bear, with us out of country everything was done via email, and this year looks to be about the same. Research, design, and implement a system that will help us find stuff. Buy a scanner for things that we don't need to keep in hard copy. Buy some durable, happy-colored file folders. Currently they include labels like "Boat Stuff," "Medical," "Taxes," "Receipts," and the all-important "Stuff I Think I Need to Keep, But Don't Know Why."

Lesson from our California trip about the care and feeding of distant friendships: Purge our address book of friendships we don't care about, ditch the people that drag us down, or that leave us worn out instead of exhilerated after we spend some time with them. Put more time/energy into connecting with the ones that remain on the list, these are the friendships that matter.

See the glass as half-full instead of half-empty: My current Facebook status is a reposting from my friend Beth: "Wishing everyone a New Year filled with magic and joy! 'We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ourght to walk through the rooms of our lives ... not looking for flaws, but for potential.' - Ellen Goodman"

I love this list of Resolutions for the Soul