Resolutions - 2015 (Personal)

Happy New Year to all!

I love a clean slate, "getting in on the ground floor" of anything, starting over.  I have total faith in my own and the world's regenerative powers.  Every day is a new day - but a whole year to look forward to and monitor and adjust is magical.

I started a bit early this year.  In 1997 on New Year's Eve I quit smoking. I worked up to it by smoking about three packs a day for a week, buying the Nicorette gum, and planning it all out so I wouldn't fail as I had thousands of times before.  It worked!  The key ingredient was the concept that I was throwing all that money away, and if I saved the $2.50 I was spending every day to ruin my health, I could afford an actual vacation at the end of the year.  That was before real estate, before I had any money or assurance that I would have any...Since then I have loved New Year's Eve resolutions.  But none have been as successful as my non-smoking campaign.

So this year instead of waiting I started early.  I have resolved to walk an hour a day, every day.  I had an administrator years ago who resolved to run every day, and did so for a year despite living in Glens Falls where it's cold and snowy a third of the year.  He did it for one year, and then had to force himself to stop because it became an obsession.

On Monday the 29th I went to the Erie Canal in Jordan and walked west with Charlie.  Lovely walk - cold but I was dressed for it, flat and easy walking.  Half an hour out and then back to the car.  Meditative, reflective, and exercise too!  I threatened myself by saying that if I hadn't gone before 3:00 I would have to go to the gym, which I hate.  The days since then I have needed no threat.  I just go.

Tuesday I came down with a cold, Liam or Oliver's cold from Christmas but I am not sure which.  I still went, but chose to be inside at Finger Lakes Mall. I know there will be challenges over the next year - those days when the world is calling and I need to answer the phone, days when my left foot needs its brace, days when the temperature dips and the snow accumulates.  But I am working out solutions for those things.  I can always walk around the house!  (My old supervisor who took up marathon-running when he was in his 50s says that in the future the scientists will discover it's not the running, but rather the being outside that is the benefit.)  Of course, if you see me walking in the Village around 11:00 at night you can guess it's been a very busy day and I am only then getting to my walking.

I also want to reference Cynthia Tucker's editorial about "Being Content with my Flaws."  Very, very true.  I imagine you can find it on the internet.

So I will walk, and if you call or text or e-mail and I take a half hour to get back to you wonder where I am. I might be at the Canal or the shoreline at Seneca Lake, or up and over our hills into the cornfields.  If Charlie barks a "Let's keep moving" bark then you may surmise that we are out somewhere.  And you can always ask me.

They say that in order to make something a habit it needs to be done 11 times.  On January 8th I will be celebrating while I walk.