New

A new year, a new blog.

Resolving to make new or self-improving changes at the start of the year is cliché, and naively arbitrary when you think about it, but that change of the last digit on the checks you write (umm . . . if you do still happen to write checks) seems to make all of the difference.

My personal resolutions for the year are the stereotypical ones: Get in better shape; eat less, work out more. Make more money, and then once I have it, be better with how I spend it.

The standard list out of the way, my biggest goal this year is to be more present with the people in my life. To be braver, to reach out to people, stop holding them at arm’s length, to forgive and forget, be vulnerable.

Rebuild friendships.

Be a better partner to Betsy.

Stop getting into damn stupid political discussions on Facebook. I’ve lost friends – at least Facebook “friends” – and have suffered more tension among my family these last several months, thanks to the Presidential election, and other matters in the cultural eye. Find ways to help make progressive changes that need to come as we continue in the 21^st century (it’s hard to believe we’ve already been here 12 years, doesn’t it?) that are actually effective, not petty internet squabbling.

Be more artistic. I think I’ve practiced my art – performing, storytelling, writing – the least this last year since the year I was in massage school, and the rust is showing. Re-find my true artistic voice, and not just the voice I think other people think I should have.

“Things I Learned Today, and Other Inconveniences”: Inspired by the lists I’ve posted on Facebook with varying regularity over the last year and a half. “Other inconveniences” acknowledging that humans, by our nature, seem to fight learning, fight new knowledge. We often times have to deceive our brains into learning new tricks.

I’m not sure what exact shape this new home will take yet, but I’m guessing a lot of journaling, some essays, a return to some flash fiction writing (I’m finally working on self-publishing select works from my Flash 397 project a couple of years ago, but more on that later.)

I hope you’ll stop in and read every now and then.