I have put some thought into the new year and the idea of making resolutions. I have never made resolutions before, not in earnest. My sister calls it goal setting. I am very good at setting goals. I am even better at achieving them. The notion of setting yourself upon a task, marshaling a plan and carrying it forward. The Marshall Plan was a gargantuan task, the rebuilding after a war. The creation and construction of a civilization after devastation. We did that sixty three years ago and the Marshal plan ended FOUR YEARS later. If Europe can be rebuilt in four years after WWII then I can certainly make a significant impact on my tiny world in FOUR years. In four years, my oldest son will go to college. In four years my youngest son will start high school. Time is a mystery. A day can seem to drag for ever. A week stretches out in front like the Mojave. A month is gone like a game of leap frog and suddenly it is December. Look back and a decade has past like light poles whipping by the window of a high speed train.
I am thankful I live in a small town. I am glad I can slow down even further. I am glad I live in a town where my driving circuit is 10 miles max. I love the weather, although I could do without the pine pollen. I am so profoundly thankful that I have adopted the spirit of living slower and living here lets me do that. I want to travel and see more of the world, but I don’t want to exist in that outer space. I want to be concentrated and condensed and a particular place. I like being easy to find…it means I can find myself on those days I go missing. And so, I will think of my own Marshall Plan: a plan that looks to the future and does not focus on the destruction of the past.
