<\/p>\n

A local writer friend of mine introduced a recent blog post by calling it \u00a0“the dreaded New Year’s resolution”<\/a> post and, in the comments, I thanked him for taking one for the team.<\/p>\n

I would have given just about anything to write “the dreaded New Year’s resolution” post this year. I’d have been especially grateful to give up the fever, the strep throat, the body aches, and the incessant coughing. My ribs haven’t felt like this since my sports car was rear-ended by a moving truck. Yes, my friends, apparently hanging around online with those erotica writers<\/a> put me on Santa’s naughty list. Despite my focus on the business of writing and promotion, Santa brought me a big bag-o-yuck — something I would have cheerfully returned for store credit. It arrived the day after Christmas — eight days — and I haven’t even achieved boredom yet.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”Santa brought me a big bag-o-yuck — something I would have cheerfully returned for store credit” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

Still miserable but no longer contagious, I insisted on going out for an hour for the island’s lighted shrimp drop. It’s a goofy, joyful celebration and I needed the updraft.<\/p>\n

My family has been wonderful. They cooked and did laundry and enjoyed one another. They were great sports when, most nights, we chose a movie — and I was sound asleep before the second half. (And except for the Sooners v. Bulldogs in the Rose Bowl,<\/a> the same held true for football.)<\/p>\n

But I’ve wandered too far from my appreciation of Micah’s resolution post.<\/a> (He did a good job — you should really read it.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you spend more than 2.5 minutes online, there is no way you can miss all the huzzah-huzzah about the new year. There are review questions, goal-setting advice, and, of course, your “word” or intention for the coming year. (And if you’re not careful, you can buy something to help make this all easier and more effective for you.)<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”I love reviewing the ending year and trying different methods to map out the year to come.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, the time between Christmas and the New Year is one of my favorites. I love reviewing the ending year and trying different methods to map\u00a0out the year to come. And I may still try to devote some time to the process when my husband and son set out for a “guy trip” in a couple of days. \u00a0But, when I read my friend and fellow writer’s first post of the year, I had an important takeaway. Whatever we call it and however we do it, those clean slate rituals are nice but probably what matters more is my ongoing commitment to being a better human — whether for the new year or even for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A local writer friend of mine introduced a recent blog post by calling it \u00a0“the dreaded New Year’s resolution” post and, in the comments, I thanked him for taking one for the team. I would have given just about anything to write “the dreaded New Year’s resolution” post this year. I’d have been especially grateful to give up the fever, the strep throat, the body aches, and the incessant coughing. My ribs haven’t felt like this since my sports car was rear-ended by a moving truck. Yes, my friends, apparently hanging around online with those erotica writers put me on Santa’s naughty list. Despite my focus on the business of writing and promotion, Santa brought me a big bag-o-yuck — something I would have cheerfully returned for store credit. It arrived the day after Christmas — eight days — and I haven’t even achieved boredom yet. [bctt tweet=”Santa brought me a big bag-o-yuck — something I would have cheerfully returned for store credit” username=”AndreaPatten”] Still miserable but no longer contagious, I insisted on going out for an hour for the island’s lighted shrimp drop. It’s a goofy, joyful celebration and I needed the updraft. My family has been wonderful. They cooked and did laundry and enjoyed one another. They were great sports when, most nights, we chose a movie — and I was sound asleep before the second half. (And except for the Sooners v. Bulldogs in the Rose Bowl, the same held true for football.) But I’ve wandered too far from my appreciation of Micah’s resolution post. (He did a good job — you should really read it.) If you spend more than 2.5 minutes online, there is no way you can miss all the huzzah-huzzah about the new year. There are review questions, goal-setting advice, and, of course, your “word” or intention for the coming year. (And if you’re not careful, you can buy something to help make this all easier and more effective for you.) [bctt tweet=”I love reviewing the ending year and trying different methods to map out the year to come.” username=”AndreaPatten”] Generally speaking, the time between Christmas and the New Year is one of my favorites. I love reviewing the ending year and trying different methods to map\u00a0out the year to come. And I may still try to devote some time to the process when my husband and son set out for a “guy trip” in a couple of days. \u00a0But, when I read my friend and fellow writer’s first post of the year, I had an important takeaway. Whatever we call it and however we do it, those clean slate rituals are nice but probably what matters more is my ongoing commitment to being a better human — whether for the new year or even for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12111"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=12111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}