Writing & Gratitude

Gratitude for a New Year About to Begin

15 best practices for the New Year. What are yours?

Here we are on the cusp of another New Year. It’s an odd time in place when we look to the past and look to the future all at once — a time of reflection on days gone by and hope for what lies ahead.

I’m so happy and thankful that we all made it to this point! I’m thankful that we all have the present to enjoy and the future to look forward to.

“Oh, I wish I had a river…”

It can be difficult to think about the past sometimes. I have a lot of regrets about all the mistakes and bad choices I’ve made, people I’ve unintentionally let down or hurt, things I didn’t accomplish. It can be an empty feeling.

Just don’t think about it!

This is what I tried to do for many years. I wanted to look to the future. Nothing’s wrong with that is there? Often when someone would mention something that happened in the past I would change the subject.

“Who wants to dredge up all that crap!”

I know now what a mistake I was making. A person can never outrun their past. It will always be there, just like our feet and hands.

“River” — Joni Mitchell on YouTube

“Time keeps on slippin’…”

I’ve always tried to be a person who looked to the future with optimism — perhaps blindly so. Optimism is how we humans continue to accomplish anything on this planet. Without it, life would never move ahead. It would just stay stuck.

It isn’t always easy to feel happy and optimistic about the future though. The last two years have been filled with a lot of gloom and turmoil and bad news everywhere. Looking on the bright side and hoping things will get better can get exhausting sometimes.

“Fly Like an Eagle” — Stever Miller Band

A Plan for the Now and the Future!

Here are the things I either plan to start or carry over from last year. I hate to sound pessimistic but I already know I will have trouble with 2 and 10.

1. “Be strong every day for those who cannot.”
2. Look to the past and think of all the good things that have happened and not just the bad things.
3. Learn from the bad things and use them as a way to bond with other people.
4. Stop watching the morning news (I already started this one actually.)
5. In fact, especially when writing, stop watching television at all until late afternoon/evening.
6. Instead, listen to pleasing and upbeat music. (I love Chopin and Debussy in the morning.)
7. Find more ways to be selfless.
8. Stop dwelling on myself so much.
9. Try and have a positive effect on other people as much as possible.
10. Continue to work on social anxiety by reaching out to more people outside of my current sphere of folks.
11. Publish more on The Haven. Some of my best-performing stories were published in The Haven yet I haven’t posted there since August! (I guess I haven’t been feeling that funny lately.)
12. Publish more on The Shortform for the same reason.
13. Make decisions about my own publication, The Midnight Garden. Should I keep it as my own or open it up to other writers. The latter seems so scary!
14. Make it big here on Medium.
15. Inspire others to do the same!

What are your plans for the present and/or the future?

I hope everyone has a great New Year!

Thank you to Trista Signe Ainsworth for this awesome pub!

Every week I form new connections with so many awesome writers! Please check ’em out: Rishab Batra, Uwem Daniels, A.H. Mehr, Shameem Anwar, Anita Corbo, Margie Willis, Linda Acaster, Jenine Bsharah, RGomez, and Michael Nagy.