This blog is not about resolutions — you know, the dreadful list so many of us create each year with the intention that it shows all the good, healthy, important things we are going to finally do for ourselves this year. This year, I am going to get healthy. This year, I am going to lose weight. This year: I will sell a million books, get on Oprah’s book club, Reeses’s book club, and Reading with Jenna. This year, the Legends of Star Junction series will not only be discovered, but loved so deeply that the whole series is optioned for movie deals. This year I will be productive, go to bed at a reasonable hour, get up early and meditate before exercising before coffee. This year.

Isn’t it interesting what these lists really are? They are lists of all the ways we feel that we have let ourselves down. Ugh. No. As my Irish friend Alvagh would say, “Feck no!”. This year, I will not rake myself over the coals before we even get started. This year, I will love myself. Not because it is a new year and that somehow how has meaning and importance. No. Simply because this is the year I am in right now. Instead of resolutions, I will have resolution of that pattern and need to analyze every moment and action. Of every sentence written – is it good enough? Will readers want to read more? Is it enough? What does that serve anyway? Nothing good. Let it dissolve into nothingness.

This year, I will sit with resolve. I’ve created a self-care plan that is NOT a “to-do” list. And, I am listening to my wise mentors about resting when I feel to rest, and playing way more than I think I should. Their names are Lucy and Fizzy. They are also known as The Rebel Dogs. So, when I am saying “yes” to too many projects, adding things to a day’s tasks, and my shoulders start to come too far forward with the weight of it and too long at the computer, Fizzy intervenes with a ragged toy and an expectant look. She doesn’t care what she plays with…just that it is time to play. Ah, yes… that’s right. I am doing what I love. Writing. Working with and helping other writers. Creating beautiful, funny, exciting, and sometimes heartbreaking stories.

There was a point when writing was play for me. When I let the words dance and flow easily through the keyboard. When pages filled with ease. What did I do to change that to where I sometimes fight for words. Scratch them out of stone to get a meager paragraph. Huh…I stopped playing. When we play, creativity flows. The vibration of play opens our creative channels. This is where I want to be. This is my resolve, my resolution, and my self care.

Thankfully, my wise guides are standing by ready to help.