New Year's Resolutions and Stuff Like That

It feels like these last months of 2016 have left a bitter taste and I for one am ready to leave the old year behind. 

Here's to 2017!

I believe a brand new year merits some appropriate forethought and planning.  I've been pondering for a few days and came up with a couple "resolutions" for 2017.

 

 Mason is pondering .... not sure what!  

What is a 3-year old with a 

blanket over his head

thinking about?

I have no clue!

The thing most on my mind going into the new year is the damage the new president who will take office in a few days will do to my country, he who has vowed to take away so much I hold dear.  Will my Social Security check disappear or be cut so severely I can't live?  Will my Medicare insurance be taken away or go up so much in cost I can no longer afford health care?  

What will happen to issues I care so deeply about like immigration and a peaceful multicultural society?  protecting public lands from oil drilling, mining, and other greedy and shortsighted purposes that will destroy them?  gutting social programs for the poor, the elderly, the disabled?  civility, kindness, and honesty?  destruction of the environment my grandsons will live in?

I go crazy, lose sleep, thinking about these things I feel helpless to change politically.  

Which does no one any good.

Ghandi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." That helps bring the overwhelming down to a level I can affect. 

So, my plan for 2017:

New Years Resolution #1:  

Step up my own efforts to leave the natural world a livable and beautiful place 

for my grandsons to inherit.  

 

 #1a. Personal War on Plastic

 

This is a raft of plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean. 

 It covers 8.1% of the Pacific Ocean!  Mind boggling, isn't it?  

It's full of toxic chemicals, toxic to sea life now, how long until it is also toxic to human water and food supplies, health, etc?

 

 

 And it is here pretty much forever.

But I won't be adding to it ever again.

I will be doubling my efforts to recycle  what plastic we have and to buy as little new plastic as is humanly possible. 

#1b.  Get Environmentally Involved in my New Community.

Participate locally in cleaning up beaches and roadsides.  Search out opportunities to educate others about environmental issues.

 I haven't explored exactly how we will get involved, but we have joined the local branch of the Sierra Club and will attend our first meeting next week.  They seem to have plenty of need for volunteers in various capacities and it will be great to meet likeminded people.

#1c. Write.

Be a voice to badger politicians, stores that force people to consume plastic through packaging, and whoever else needs poking about issues.  Sign petitions.  

New Year's Resolution #2.

Write (the other kind).

Move on beyond my blog and letters and emails to politicians and put some of the stories and poems in my head on paper.  Drag out the young adult novel I started and see if it is worth giving it another go.  Edit my dad's letters from World War II and think about putting them into a book for my family.  Etc.

 

There.  

That's it, plenty to give me a purpose 

and keep me busy for a year.  

How about you?