My List of Resolutions

No New Year’s resolutions for me.

I’ve failed at them too many times. Nope, this year I’m going to walk into 2024 and just see what happens.

That’s what I said at midnight. By 12:30 a.m., I had a list of resolutions. Looking at them, I realized they were the very same ones I write down every year. It doesn’t mean one thing who I’m with when writing those resolutions. Somehow they must be ground into my DNA because there’s no escaping them. Do I dare share with you what I’ve written? This blog seems safe enough and people don’t generally comment so maybe I can just pretend no one is here and just write away.

The first resolution: I’ve had this since I was little. I’m going to dust. Well, let’s just say it’s a nice idea but I never have enough time. When I was a child I was either playing, pretending, dancing or drawing to have time to do that simple chore. It was my thought—if I waste time on it today, I’ll still have to do it tomorrow so maybe I’ll just leave it for awhile. Then, when I had children of my own, it was more fun playing with them than dusting.

The second resolution: I promise not to dance or work on art when I’m supposed to be praying. I promised to say Liturgy of the Hours (LOH), and it is an easy one to do when I’m at St. Ben’s. At home, I look at the LOH for the day and my mind has me somewhere else lots of times. Too many words and not enough color. While I really try to stick to the psalms, I find I’ve got half a dozen sketches with each psalm. Did I really pray that psalm? I don’t know. There have been times I’ve thought about a way to dance one of the psalms and when I’m not in a pew, up I go.

The third resolution: Listen better. It’s not so much that I don’t listen. Lots of times I don’t clarify and don’t ask. Need to ask more what people really mean.

Those are a few of my resolutions. That third one is a constant, just the people change. I tell you true. None of them has ever been 100%.

I’ve been toying with a new idea. I think I’m old enough to get a tattoo. Check back next year to see if I had the guts to do it.

P.S. I got up this morning and made it through prayer without a pencil, and I dusted the piano!

Pat Pickett, OblSB

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash