• Wearing: A brand-new-for-me, vintage-to-the-rest-of-the-world skirt purchased yesterday alongside Kristi, an excellent thrifting partner & friend.
• Listening to: The soulful sounds of a sweet sweet friend, Alice (Calvery) Hardin. Perfect for slow Sunday mornings.
• Eating: A breakfast of organic, low-fat yogurt, & just a homemade mini-muffin. Or three. Guess which resolution I’m working on this week?

(Hint: It’s number six.) Hello, cheri, & welcome to the start of a brand new week! As you can see, I’m concentrating on a new resolution this week, having gotten number one (get in touch with inner early bird), number eight (put things away on a daily basis) and number 12 (amend chronic lateness) pretty much down pat. I decided to schedule my work days to begin at 8:30 a.m., & the two days I don’t work begin with 8 o’clock meetings or classes, so I’m pretty much forced up & out of bed every day. And when it comes to putting things away, though I’m not perfect yet, the goal is to spend 15 minutes a day washing dishes or closing drawers or straightening surfaces, so there’s never a mess that requires hours on end spent tidying away.

As for the other resolutions, there are a few I’d say I’m halfway toward having under my belt: Number two (read some books), for example, is a work in progress. The stipulation for the thing was really to read a book a month––January was Breakfast at Tiffany’s, this month it’s my beloved Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What. I’m still slaving away on my scarf­­ (see number 14), close to finishing up my branding (number 13), & last week created a budget––but haven’t quite stuck to it yet (number 10).

This week, though, I’ve decided to concentrate on three more: Eating healthy, hunting jobs & making someone’s day. Of course, there’s fine print to each of these. When it comes to eating healthy, I’m going to try harder to eat organically––I usually just go for the organic meats, dairy & eggs, but I’d like to see myself make the switch all around. Other than that, I’m going to try to cut down on the junk food, switch to skim milk & stop eating whatever I want just because I’ve always been small before. At some point, this metabolism’s going to slow down––& I’d like to be in control of my carb intake before it tanks. So far I’m giving myself just two exceptions to the rule: When I’m company to someone else’s cooking & when I’m making or eating ethnic foods. (Yes, I did come up with that excuse solely because of my obsession over butter chicken & the remaining two packets of mix I purchased at the Indian grocery & can’t wait to consume. Judge me if you want!)

As for hunting jobs, I decided to dedicate the earliest part of the week to the hunt: Mondays and Wednesdays from 12–1, & Tuesdays from 9–10. Here’s to having one come May!

And finally, number five: Make someone’s day, every day. Sometimes I don’t have the best outlook on life, or humanity, for that matter. My attitude tends to be less happy-go-lucky and more like Liz Lemon, or that guy on Youtube that hates everything. Some people would probably call me a realist, which I’ve always respected about myself, until I realized I’d be a whole lot happier if I gave people the benefit of the doubt. Then, a few things happened to me in the past 24 hours that made me convinced all the more of my need to recognize again the good in the people around me.

Yesterday, at a bustling light on the bypass, I noticed a homeless man & his dog across the intersection, in the grass beside cars lined down a yield lane onto the road. As I was awaiting the light to turn green, I watched as one, two, three, four different drivers stopped, smiles on their faces, to give a word & a wad of cash to the man. This was a yield lane, where cars hardly pause before pushing their way onto the overpass. But four of them did, in the minute or so that I was paused at the light, & no one ever honked to hurry them. Instantly, I was struck by my own lack of faith in my fellow men. People are generally good––sometimes even great. And for the third time that day, I was brought to tears by the things they can do.

I was reminded of my own bio statement on this blog, in which I quote Old Crow Medicine Show’s “We’re all in this thing together.” I believe in those words, & even if I forgot for a bit, I want to get back on track, encouraging my community—my friends, acquaintances or even strangers––of the good they can be, the good they’ve done me.

That said, I want to thank YOU, cheri, for all that you do. Thank you for always reading, for commenting or liking my posts, & for your constant encouragement. I can only hope to come close.

As always, J’ADORE.