Are they resolutions? Or goals? Or wishful thinking?

I can't believe that even though I reinitiated this blog at the beginning of a calendar year, I've yet to do the most obvious of posts: establishing some New Year's Resolutions. I've never taken to the word resolution, however, and have often used goals in its stead. Truthfully, I'm not sure I've undertaken this exercise in a while - certainly not since Covid, surely rationalizing that the pandemic might not be the ideal time to be setting goals and milestones. "Just getting through this" would have been all I would have been able to muster. But in the spirit of the new year and new hopes and possibilities, let me see if I can whip up a good old fashioned list for 2023. (And despite the temptation, I'll resist stating the obvious goal, courtesy of H. from many years ago: "Less fretting, more fucking.")

1. Read more novels. Or, really, read more in general. It's shameful how my leisure reading has dropped off so markedly over the last few years. I was reminiscing the other day on my relationship with A., especially back in its infancy, around 2008, when I had such a great reading rhythm. It's when I discovered Roberto Bolano, for example, and gorged on his work. (I even read Savage Detectives twice!) And looking back on pasts blogs, and seeing the books I was going through, I was simply more engaged with reading. Of course I still read, and a lot: the news, stuff for work, magazines (many of them New York based, such as NY Review of Books, the New Yorker, the NYT Magazine - maybe I should have lived there!), and still consider myself a "reader." But not to the extent that I once was, so let's see myself do something about that. This should also include buying more books, particularly Canadian works and from small presses. Stay tuned!

2. Being more true to myself. I know, this seems soft, but in fact this is probably the most difficult one for me to achieve. I won't give a long discourse on this one as it's a goal that requires more explanatory posts!

3. Spend more time with my mother, and generally be in touch with her more often. This is fairly obvious, given the recent death of my father - again, a topic that needs a full blog entry. 

4. Spend more time with friends. I've been out of the socializing habit since Covid - although, frankly, I think I was out of practice prior to 2020. I've got some quality friends, and they are generally fun to be with. 

5. Explore more areas outside of the city. Now that I have greater access to a vehicle, I need to use it to venture out on weekend (and weekday!) excursions more often. Maybe stay overnight in a few places in Ontario? Now there's a thought.

Five seems like a good number to start with for now.