Last New Year’s Eve, I wrote about believing.

2021 certainly tested my resolve to keep that belief alive. It wavered often and I am entering the new year with a few more scars and cracks than I had previously adorned.

Every New Year’s Eve, I write down goals and things I hope to achieve. At the end of the following year like clockwork, I feel I haven’t achieved enough. I am feeling that now as I write this. I didn’t achieve everything I wanted even though I had the time, the drive, the motivation. Yet when I look at what I listed 365 days earlier, I realize I am so much farther than I assumed.

The writing down is key to not feel like a complete failure.

This year, I plan to do the same but instead of resolutions, I am going to write down pleasures. Little things that bring me joy that I have found I don’t do enough of. That’s my focus for the next year.

Here are some of the pleasures I hope to have in 2022:

Skin and body care

I love skincare. I am obsessed with trying new products, new brands, etc. It is why I continue to work in it. I want to dive deeper into body care. I’ve always used body wash but never really invested in scrubs, lotions, serums for anything other than my face. Since I’m working remotely for the indefinite future, my showers have gotten longer and I am able to indulge a bit. I can mask while I work, paint my nails in the afternoon, try different shampoo every few months. I only hope you have something that gets you as excited as me opening a new eye cream to test. Seeking exfoliating body scrubs recs!

French

I love all things French and Parisian, always have. Earlier this year, my husband and I started French Fridays where we do a French lesson on Babbel and eat French foods such as cheese or pastries, drink French wine, and watch French movies or shows. I want to do more of this, adding in French music, books, and art (my favorite).

Witchy vibes

I want to get better at Tarot and performing spells. I have all the tools and I’d like to really go for it with my altar, crystals, spell books, and new mortar and pestle I got for Christmas. I want to follow the moon more closely, do my rituals every cycle, pull a card every day with one of my new Tarot sets. I want to commit more to the craft because when I do, I feel electrified.

Reading

The pandemic made it difficult for me to focus reading and continues to do so. I had a goal last year of 50 books. I got close, I read about 35. Next year, I want to read 52, a book a week. I have the time, I have lunch breaks and again, I work from home so it isn’t difficult to sit down and read for an hour. I just need to take better advantage of it!

Hair and makeup

I wrote about this in my previous blog but I am going to get dressed more, blow dry my hair, put on eyeliner. I relish the days I stay in sweats and no makeup and do not plan to get rid of them entirely. But when I go out, I’m going all out. Jewelry, makeup, boots. Who cares if I don’t take a picture of an outfit? I used to think dressing up and putting on a full face was wasteful. It isn’t because it makes me feel incredibly good. Nothing that does that is a waste.

Food

I plan to continue my love of food and cooking. I really got into it more in the pandemic and I love making fancier dinners than we typically do on a random Tuesday. We are a big sheet bake household and while I love them and the ease they bring, I also love chopping four different vegetables and herbs and garlic and stirring and sizzling and creating something that requires more than one cooking utensil.

Spending money in the right places

The pandemic has only furthered my love of fast fashion because I have not been out and about and thrifting or finding small clothing shops in undiscovered city corners. I recently bought a beautiful, well made coat on a mega sale and realized it will last me far longer than any Target coat I’ve purchased (I love Target, do not get me wrong but sometimes investing goes a lot further). I’ve found when I’ve spent a little more money, I am far happier with my purchase and don’t feel like I am wasting paycheck. Same goes for furniture, shoes and anything else I spent my money on. I want to support smaller businesses, vintage treasures, and places that deserve recognition. I feel good when I do.

Letting go of expectations

This is a hard one. I am getting better at it; thinking of what I want instead of what I think I should want or what others want of me. I never realized how little I think of what I want. It is different than what I need. My wants are valid and need to be tended to. I have a better idea about what I want and hope to explore and discover more in the next year.

Rest

I am so bad at rest. When I have allowed myself to be still, I have welcomed more ideas and gained energy more than going at a neck breaking pace. I realized I needed to listen to my body and my soul when it is aching and give it what it needs which is almost always REST.

Taking care of that same body

For the last few months, I have been drinking less, eating more veggies, drinking a bucket of water and exercising daily even if it was just a 20 minute yoga video. It is rude how good I felt. Everything they tell you about eating good food and exercising and hydrating is true, turns out. Recently, after plummeting down into a dark hole, I stopped doing all of the above for the last two weeks. I don’t feel terrible but I also don’t feel great. I am exhausted, sluggish, uninspired. It is more than this, of course, and I am listening to what my body and heart needs right now but I am also slugging down a smoothie filled with spinach and 64oz of water. I feel better already.

Living my geek girl life

I love wearing Disney inspired clothing and jewelry. I love discussing the MCU at length. I love quoting Lord of the Rings and arguing over who is the best batboy in the A Court of Thorn and Roses series. I may be in my late 30s but I love being a nerd and I love that the culture has shifted to us being cool. Who cares if I wear a subtle Star Wars skirt or Mickey Mouse necklace as an adult? If it makes me happy, that is all that matters. You are never too old to celebrate the things you love.

Are these basically resolutions? Yes, yes they are. However, I am referring to them as pleasures and that’s that. There are more I will add tomorrow when I officially write them all down. For now, these are my top pleasures for 2022. I will have goals, of course.

• I plan to find beta readers after this draft of A Girl Sought and Found.

• I will plot the following two books of that series and hope to query the first.

• I want to write the second draft (finally) of A Storyteller of Old Orleans.

• Enter more contests, write more short stories and flash fiction, publish more Medium articles and return to consistency with my blog and newsletter.

• Give my website a revamp.

• Audition again (maybe).

I’ve got pleasures and I’ve got goals. We are all hanging on by a thread. I can feel it in the air. It is unsettling and scary. I have to belief there is an end in sight. After two years of plans being canceled, lives lost, fight or flight going into overdrive, I am focusing on the pleasures and pursuing them more. In the end, that is what we remember and hold onto. The things that enriched our lives while we chased our goals and resolutions. The New Year doesn’t always mean a better you. Sometimes it is shining a light on what already makes you great and letting it glow bright.