In January 2025 I didn’t make New Year’s resolutions. At least not consciously. Last month I thought, “I’ll just do what I have been doing, but maybe try to do it better”—blogging, Pilates, making meals, keeping up with friends and gardening. This year (I’m thinking now) I’ll shy away from specific declarations: number of books to read, number of blog posts to create, more steps on my Fitbit.
Maria Jesus Contreras, The New York Times Feb. 3, 2025
Even a hamster, pausing on his wheel, may be imagining a promising new year. This mottled creature obviously has goals! Holding pencil and pad in his paws, he may be making his own memo: asking his owner for a colored spinning wheel, fresh wood chips, music to go with his spins. Who knows?
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In 1935 my Aunt Ruthie (age 17) assessed the new year in her diary optimistically. However, itt seems as though she may have had second thoughts after her 1935 entry. In 1936 she made no resolutions. The 1937 entry declares, “I make no rash promises.” In 1938 she sounds dismal except for receiving a check for hectograph work in the college office.
Translation
Not everyone reflects Aunt Ruthie’s entry in her teenage diary. These days, Wendy Mac seems way more upbeat.
And so does author friend Elfrieda Schroeder in a recent blog post. She encourages us to “think like a tree,” a quote from the book, The Tree that Time Built by Karen I. Shragg. You can find more inspiration from Elfrieda on her website, https://ens-intransit.blogspot.com/
My own thoughts for the year
Lodged in the Old Testament, you can find the story of the prophet Samuel, who acknowledges the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Israel and also the defeat of the Philistines. “Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.”
Fun Facts
The expiration date on my library card is 2099 !
Person who reads in bed: librocubicularist
February also is the month I began my blog twelve years ago. Some of you
are still with me after all those years. Huzzah! Huzzah!
An amazing collage of insights! The starts and stops of life seem to wear on us, but in hindsight, those momentary pauses prepare us for the next leg of the journey.
Early in the morning you have given us food for thought, Grant.
I am putting together a post about novel-writing sometime in March, which includes you.
Thanks for opening our discussion here. 😀
You’re welcome, Marian. Keep ’em coming!
Good morning, Marian!
What a wonderfully optimistic library card you have! 💙
I never make resolutions, but I do have goals.
Congratulations on your twelve years of blogging! Woo hoo! Onward!
“Goals” rather than “resolutions” seem to be a more realistic way to express intention. I admire your constantly expanding oeuvre, Merril! 😀
Thank you, Marian! 😊
Congratulations, Marian, on your twelve year blogoversary!!
I don’t make resolutions either.
I definitely need the Lord’s help! My family has faced a big challenge recently. We need His strength.
I understand big family challenges. Recently, I have been reading verses on hope and comfort. Thanks for always reading and commenting in this space, L. Marie! ((( )))
What a great post. Like you, I’ve been reading a diary from long ago. I loved reading the entries for January 1 between 1935 and 1939 by your Aunt Ruthie. The teenage angst comes through. I laughed at not wanting the responsibility of making resolutions! The poem read by Elfrieda is wonderful. Thanks for sharing it. Congratulations on blogging for 12 years!
Darlene, I believe we have similar thoughts this time of year. Thanks so much for noticing the blog components here, including your complement. Yes, “Think Like a Tree” is a memorable poem with fresh guidance for the entire year. 😀
I love Aunt Ruthie’s diary at 17. Here’s something from mine at almost that age: 18, on the cusp of a year of voluntary service in Kentucky, and spending two weeks in orientation with some awesome new friends, one of whom lives just five miles from me now and I see her often at the VMRC pool and sometimes at her church we visit frequently.
“Don’t look for a husband, don’t even look for a boyfriend–just look for a friend. I’d rather end up having a friend and no husband, rather than having a husband and no friend.” [I don’t know who wrote this, but I put it in quotes because I don’t think I wrote it.]
You are certainly a Keeper of Words, Melodie, both in memoir and recording family history.
I really like the quote in your second paragraph and will share it with Cliff. It’s sound advice which I did not follow. Our friendship progressed from “friend” to potential husband in a week’s time. 😀
Like a tree, I am hanging “tough through cold spell” here in Pennsylvania. I always enjoy how you pull whimsy and profundity together, Marian. Congratulations on twelve years! I am grateful we found each other through the “pages” of the internet and through our similar book projects. Like Merril, I make goals, seldom resolutions. My goal this year is to read more. So far, I am reading about one book per week. Right now I am on a Richard Powers “kick.” What a mind that man has! Stuart and I are also reading through the new Anabaptist Community Bible. I may blog about this experience. The Bible is such a rich collection of scholarship, community conversation, and history.
Long ago your words in a “random” post shared during a blog writing presentation pulled me into writing online which I regard as providential.
Richard Powers is a new author to me; thanks for the introduction.
Last year Cliff and I along with many church members read the Bible (NIV) in 100 days. We commented on a Facebook page and had weekly face-to-face discussions, a rich experience.
Thanks for all this, Shirley! 😀
Hi,
I love Aunt Ruthie Diary. I don’t usually make resolutions. However, I do pick out a Bible Verse and I examine how it follows me through the year. In 2023, it was faithfulness, (out of Lamentations)and as I looked back over that year in the beginning of 2024 I said, Yes, great is your faithfulness to me. Because HE was and still is. I can rely on God’s faithfulness.
Have a lovely day.
Shalom shalom
Using a Bible verse for guidance is a fail-safe way to progress through any year. I love that verse in Lamentations 3:22 too. And I like the idea that it’s new and fresh every morning.
Thanks for encouraging us here, Pat! 😀
Thanks for mentioning my blog post, Marian. We began blogging about the same time. I first became aware of your blog through Shirley Showalter’s posts, which were introduced to me by fellow author Dora Dueck! It’s a small,small world!
I’ve been a librocubicularist for most of my life, without realizing I had such an impressive title! Sometimes I had to do it furtively, with a flashlight, so My sister could go to sleep, or so I could quickly turn off the light when my mother came to check on us!
Elfrieda, your posts are always so meaty, and this one about the stability of a tree impressed me greatly. I was happy to share it.
Yes, I have been a librocubicularist too, not knowing the fancy title. Sometimes when I read in bed I’m startled when the book falls out of my hands to the floor–and I lose my place. :-O
Woo hoo, Marian! Congrats on your 12-year anniversary. That’s wonderful and it’s also a lot of hard work which you have now permanently recorded in time. 😊 Gosh, Aunt Ruthie seemed to face the “disillusionment” of a new year so quickly! Maybe she was super hard on herself regarding her own expectations, but age 20 is still so young! And I loved the tree poem! I have a small description of trees in my WIP, and I totally connected to the poem. Thank you for sharing!
As long as WordPress hangs together our posts will stay permanently recorded in time. Yours too!
I agree, I think Aunt Ruthie was not only hard on herself but also too young to see the big picture. Yes, I love that poem tree too; it will stay in my mind for a good, long time. Thanks, Melanie! 😀
You make an excellent point about WordPress, Marian, haha. Writers, hold onto your originals! 😊
Yes!
How delightfully cheerful you are! I like the idea of no resolutions just a commitment to doing the same things better. The less/more idea is spot on, too. I like seeing things explained simply.
Seeing things explained simply–that’s my motto too. And doing the same things better doesn’t seem too scary either, Ally! 😀
Marian — In 2099 I’ll be 142 years old!
And I’ll be older! 🤣
It’s interesting to compare our thoughts and those of our family and friends historically. Inevitably some perspectives, opinions, and goals change.
Congratulations on your blogging milestone. It will be six years for me next month, pretty amazing since I had no plans beyond the first post. I crossed paths with you early on and still enjoy reading your thoughts.
I like the detail you bring to your posts and the attitude – almost always positive; you and I are constructing a history, which would slip through our fingers if we didn’t record it.
It’s always good to hear from you, Pete!
Happy 12th blog anniversary, Marian! You keep coming up with topics to keep us all reading and reflecting. No resolutions for me this year. But I always have the same goal: find a balance between leisure and work/tasks/chores. I never succeed and I’m always overwhelmed…
Liesbet, you have a unique lifestyle and you are not the type to slow down.
I’m glad you keep coming back to read and chat. Hugs! 😍
Congratulations on your twelve years of blogging! I loved the “Think Like a Tree” reading. Words to live by . . .
Thank you, Liz. I see from your website you have been blogging a good, long time as well. By the way, I admire your blog’s organization: blogposts, publications, book reviews, interviews, etc. — the whole shebang!
Congrats after 12 years of blogging, Marian..my times just flies. I don’t make resolutions anymore..I like the idea to “Think like a Tree”…I can live like that 🙂
Thanks for chiming in here, Carol. And I agree with thinking “like a tree”! 😀
Congratulations on your 12th Anniversary! Keep it going!
You are kind to comment here. I appreciate your support, Fatima! 🙂
Hi Marian a fun post. I also don’t make resolutions. I just move towards goals. When I make set plans life always happens and a family member ends up very sick. Now it’s dad’s turn 💝
Just now I looked at your dramatic lion painting on your FB page. You always do exceptional work, even when you are beset with illness and other obstacles.
Best wishes for health restoration for dad! 😀
Hi Marian – I enjoyed reading your thoughts, and your Aunt Ruthie’s. I like her practical and realistic entries. Did you know that our library cards here have to be updated every 3 years or they expire?
Barb, I keep my library card current–always. I think it’s a good idea to have cards updated periodically. That way you can manage those who move, lose interest, don’t pay fees! Thanks for adding to our chat here. 😀
“I make no rash promises.” Oh my gosh that made me laugh out loud. Smart woman, she is. Why promise something that a month or so late makes so sense? But I love the mouse cartoon. I think that’s how I feel. It’s easy to promise in the cocoon of my house “I will walk outside even if it’s cold and icy out.” My new promise is “I will keep myself safe and warm.” Haha.
Aunt Ruthie, even as a teenager, was very forthright and sincere. (I think those words are slightly different.) We never had to wonder what she was thinking.
About the cartoon: Best to stay inside and stay safe rather than catch frost-bite or break a leg. I believe warmer days are coming for you–that’s what my crystal ball says. Thanks so much, Pam!
I have also shared Aunt Ruthie’s lack of exciting or desire to make resolutions. All my well-intentioned plans either fade away or blow up. 🙂 This year I took time to pour out my heart to God and He answered (quickly!) “I am your portion”. “I make no promises” is brought a smile to my face. lol
Love it, Jenn! 😀
I believe one translation says, “I am all you need,” as a substitute for “your portion.”
Even from afar, I can tell you live a blessed life. All the crazy stuff makes for great stories, which I love.