Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
(The agents at Books & Such are on holiday, so this is a post from our archives. Enjoy!)
Every year at this time I blog about New Year’s Resolutions – whether to do them, how to do them, and my thoughts on how to make them stick.
A couple of years ago, I identified that for me to be successful with my goals, I needed to first identify the underlying emotional reason for the goal. For example, most people’s resolution to “get in shape” or “lose weight” would translate to “feel good about myself” and “look good to others” and “live longer and feel better.” I thought maybe we’d have more power in our annual goals if we connected to what was really driving us.
Another year as I examined my list of New Year’s Resolutions, I found they were uninspiring and I needed to find the joy in them, or I’d never accomplish them. Finding the joy became my mantra for that year.
This year I’ve been thinking about the fact that people take all kinds approaches to New Year’s Resolutions, from making a long list of detailed goals, to choosing one word, to shunning the practice altogether because it’s just a recipe for failure anyway. I know everyone has to find what works for them.
So here is what I’m thinking now:
How wonderful that the transition from the old year to a new one inspires many of us to think about our lives, to reflect on the past and acknowledge what we might want for the future.
However we end up — with a list of resolutions, or goals, or a single word — I think it’s the fact that we even think about our lives in this intentional way is the important thing. It’s the process that counts. It shows that we have a desire to improve ourselves somehow, or at least to be our best selves in the upcoming year.
And I love that about humanity! Regardless of where we are in life, most of us desire to do better — not materially, but just as people, we want to be the best we can. We want to put the effort in to living the best life possible. We don’t want to waste it. That says so much about us, doesn’t it?
So wherever you come down on this whole “New Year’s Resolutions” thing, I encourage you to embrace your own desire to be the best person you can be, whatever that means for you. Express it however you want, with goals or a single word or a rejection of the New Year’s traditional altogether. Just be you.
And I wish YOU the very best in the New Yar.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
I don’t do much reflection. Much of what I tried to leave as legacy has turned to dust, and the future looks unpromising. But that’s OK.
* I have NOW, and I can use it to offer love and encouragement to others, because that is the only currency we’re allowed to carry through customs to the Fields of the Lord.
* And therefore my One Word is…
SnOoPyDaNcE!!!!!!
Jeanne Takenaka
Such good thoughts, Andrew. Love is the only currency we carry with us to heaven.
*And I love your one word. 🙂
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jeanne, thank you! I wish I could actually DO the SnOoPyDaNcE!!, but it’s in my heart.
* The learning about Love has been worth the pain, and the loss of a temporal future. We are truly citizens of God’s Eternity, if we choose to be, and the Love we will find there is something only hinted at by the best love we find here, in places like…well, like Between The Lines., the blog of the Books and Such Literary Agency.
Shelli Littleton
I love your word, Andrew. You probably have no idea the degree that you have encouraged me. You make me smile.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Thank you Shelli…and, likewise, you’ve helped me rebuild my faith when it had fallen to bits, and you’ve helped me to look past the pain to the beauty and joy. You’re my hero, Shelli. You’re a giant behind whose strong back I have been able to rest and regroup.
Julie Garmon
Great word, Andrew! No way to avoid the word NOW.
Rachelle Gardner
I LOVE your one word, Andrew. Happy new year!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Thanks so much, Rachelle! It seems like such a nice word, SnOoPyDaNcE!!
* For one thing, it expresses the choice to be happy, and like David, to dance…
* And besides, Barbara bought me a plush Snoopy-and-Woodstock that, when you press Snoopy’s foot, plays the music. I think that’s a sign, don’t you?
Jeanne Takenaka
I switched from resolutions to a One Word gal a few years back. I have learned a lot as I focus on one word for the year. I still have some goals in mind, but, ultimately, God’s in charge of the timing of their fulfillment. With one word, I am praying about it and meditating on it and learning how it applies in my life each year. It’s been good for me.
*For New Years’ Eve, we’ll really step out on the wild side. My boys have begged for the game Risk. So. . . We plan to play a full game of it tomorrow. Should be interesting. 🙂
Shelli Littleton
Risk … I played that once, Jeanne … 25 or so years ago! Ha! I should give it another try. 😉 I like the Millionaire Monopoly … can’t think of the right name right off. But it’s not as long as the regular Monopoly and not nearly as depressing. 🙂
Jeanne Takenaka
We’re big Monopoly fans in this house. We have the regular version, the LOTR version and Hawaiiopoly. All are fun! 🙂
*I haven’t played Risk since I was in high school. We’ll see how we all do. 🙂
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Sounds like it will be a great New Years’ Eve, Jeanne…one that you will treasure for years to come.
* I have a suggestion for your One Word…GRACE. It’s what you show in your participation here, in your blog, to your family, and to your friends.
Jeanne Takenaka
You are kind, Andrew. I’m going to announce my One Word on my blog next week (in part because I’m still waiting for God to confirm it). I appreciate your one word for me. 🙂 Grace is something I work to offer others because God’s had to offer so much to me. 🙂
Shelli Littleton
I always stay up till the ball drops in New York. When it’s midnight there, that’s good enough for me! 🙂 We usually stay home … get lots of snacks, play a game or two. Maybe our family will come over … we’ve spent the last three weekends with them, playing games together. I’ve kind of gotten spoiled having them around so much.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Sounds lovely, Shelli. Can barbara and I…and a few of the dogs…drop by?
* The dogs promise to be on their beast behaviour.
* Well, that should have been ‘best behaviour’.
Shelli Littleton
Ha ha! Beast behaviour!! Love that. Aww … you can drop by anytime!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
We’ll be there, Shelli!
Jeanne Takenaka
BEAST behavior. Love the unintentional pun, Andrew!
Jeanne Takenaka
That sounds like a lot of relaxed fun, Shelli. Enjoy your family!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Tomorrow night, Barbara will be watching the musical festivities, and I will be sitting on the kitchen floor, laptop on my…wait for it…lap. (Hurts to much to sit in a chair.)
* I will be surrounded by dogs, and I will be…wait for it again…WRITING.
* It’s what I do.
Carol Ashby
New Year’s Eve, we’ll be in a motel in Big Spring, TX, half way home from visiting my husband’s family in the hill country north of Fort Hood. I’ll be writing on my laptop while everyone watches the Animal Planet special New Year’s programs. We’ve done this every year for more than 20 years. Some of the best were the all-crocodilian night and the “world’s deadliest” themes.
I don’t make special resolutions because I goal-set all year, but I am curious about the One Word approach. Jeanne, I’d love to know what some of your words have been.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Hmmm…Big Spring. God keeps a vacation home there.
Jeanne Takenaka
Carol, some of my words have been: Breathe, Enough, Passion, and Perspective. Each word has come at a time when I really needed to learn about them. 🙂 God usually gives me a specific Bible verse to meditate on during the year as well.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
The One Word I need right now is ‘courage’. I don’t have it. Pain’s blown through all the walls, and I’m literally shaking, and feel a dread that I have not felt before.
* I need help, and ask your prayers.
Janet Ann Collins
Courage doesn’t mean not being afraid. It means doing what you should in spite of your fears. Yes, you do have courage.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jan, thank you…what was a frightful and frightening night has segued into a morning of sharp dread…but I’m still putting one keystroke in front of the previous.
* The courage that may be there is that conferred upon me by this community, by inspiration, example, support, and most of all, love.
* I always wanted to meet Jesus in the flesh. In this place, that is a dream fulfilled.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
And…ummm…I will now hijack the post for a moment…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Awww, Jennifer…
* And the only reason I am celebrating this one is because of the love and support from the Books and Such community. YOU are the tipping point. I had a choice to take the next breath, one night not long ago. I thought of this place, and took it. I didn’t want to leave.
* Because of everyone here, when I could have given up and gone Home…I chose to stay.
* I love you guys.
Carol Ashby
Andrew, imagine all of us singing happy birthday in 4-part harmony!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
I hear it, Carol. Something wrong with my screen, though. It’s gone all blurry, all of a sudden.
Shelli Littleton
Happy birthday, Andrew!! Oh, my goodness! I hope it’s the sweetest day ever. I’m singing to you … you are so loved.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Shelli, thank you so much!
* I had a special visitor today…two, actually. The cow who inspired “Angela” has come to call, and she brought a Little One. The service dogs and I have been playing with the calf, who managed to flip Sylvia the Big Bit Bull onto her back (not an easy thing)…and Mama Cow, having a sense of humour, said MOOO!!!!
* The calf and the dogs have found a place in the sun to lie down and cuddle together, with Mama Cow standing attendance. Something of the Nativity come to life.
Janet Grant
Andrew, it’s humbling to think our little online community could bear the weight of your decision to take your next breath. We need you here. You bring so much grace, love and wisdom to each of us.
Your birthday is the perfect day for me to celebrate you. Doing the Snoopy Dance.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
It was a singular moment, Janet; after several hours of escalating pain, I was in shock, and every breath was an effort that culminated in a choice…God saying, “Look, you can stop. It’s OK. I’ll be with Barb and the dogs.”
* And I saw the Books and Such heading picture, and the thumbnail pictures and names. I told The Man, “I’m staying. I want to stay.” Thereby came the next breath, and the ones that followed.
* It sounds like a maudlin moment, but didn’t feel that way. The Grace that lives here, under His Hand and Eye and Heart, equips me for the hard hours to come, and knowing, at last, that the sweetest celebrations of triumph (Yay, a CONTRACT!…YeeHa, I have an AGENT!) are those that belong to others is what has given meaning to my own writing, and peace to my soul.
* In creating this Upper Room of writers, with its door always open and the welcome mat out, you’ve brought Christ into our midst. “Wherever two or more of you are gathered in My name…”
* You’ve done this, Janet. And I, and I think everyone here, have the deepest gratitude.
Jackie Layton
Oh, Andrew, happy birthday! I’m so glad we’ve become friends this year!
Janet Ann Collins
I’m joining the singing. Happy Birthday to you!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jackie, thank you, and I’m glad we met as well. I know that our veterans’ hearts are in the best of literary hands…yours.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jan, thank you so much! I hear the singing, carried on the frosty air of this New Mexico night, whose stars shine all the brighter with the love of my friends. I’m so blessed!
Rachelle Gardner
Happy birthday Andrew! We are all sending so much love your way.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Rachelle, today, more than ever before, the love and support that I have received from this community are bearing me aloft, and keeping me writing…and more basically, keeping me breathing.
* I had the option to quit again, five days ago. The angels came – yes, I see angels, and they are real – and let me know that I could now go with them.
* And I saw all your faces. I didn’t go, because I already see Heaven.
* Heaven is Love. And Love is HERE.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
I plan on a) seeking God’s will for me i 2016.
Therefore b) get healthy and fit enough to enjoy the ride.
In either June or July, my parents are taking my daughter and I on a wee trip on a tug to Alaska. Then, Lord willing and if the snowbanks melt, ACFW in August, then a trip to California in October. And since I’ll already be in California, MAYBE I can swing over to New Mexico. Maybe.
All that needs careful planning. And I need to get healthy for when all those adventures happen.
Shopping IS an adventure.
2016 will be the year I take back what I had: serious fitness.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
WELL, if you might make it to New Mexico, I simply HAVE to be here.
* After all, friends don’t leave beloved friends with merely the hauntings of memory.
* I will be here, Jennifer.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
you better be.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Love can scale walls at which logic quails. I will be here.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
We all need goals, Jennifer. You’ve just given me one.
Shelli Littleton
I can’t believe the ACFW conference is in August … on my birthday! Oh, man … I hope I get to go.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Me too!!!
Ohhhh, no! WHO is going to bring us a case of Coke and some bananas???
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Wouldn’t be the same without you, Shelli (nothing is the same without you, Shelli). And since The Jennifer has issued me a challenge to survive until them, MAYBE I’ll get to go, too, for a day. Maybe.
* If I do…I feel awkward asking, being an Asian…may I give you a hug?
Shelli Littleton
Give me a hug? Do you really have to ask?!!! You know I have a hug reserved with your name on it. I will try not to knock you over!! 😉
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Aw, Shelli…thanks. From where I stand now it will take a miracle to get to ACFW, but our God IS in the miracle business…
Carol Ashby
Jennifer, I live about 20 miles from Albuquerque. If you get to this part of NM, I’d love to meet you in person. (This part means within a 100-mile radius.)
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
And Carol. if you’re ever in Belen, I’d love to meet YOU in person! I can no longer travel – except for necessary doctor visits…but if you’re ever around here…
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Awesome! I was in ABQ (and Gallup, ,Fort Defiance, and Chinle, and Canyon de Chelly, and Belen, and Fort Sumner) in September!
If the plans work out for NM again in October, I will definitely plan ahead to visit you!
Carol Ashby
Andrew, I’d love to get together. I’ll email through your website when I get back.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
I’ll be looking forward to that, Carol. Godspeed on your journey!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
I’d like to offer a New Years’ resolution to the Books and Such community –
* If you know someone who was once a member of this circle, but has fallen away through discouragement…ask him or her to come back. Offer encouragement, and offer the hand of Grace that says, “YOU MATTER!”
* And say, “We miss you. Please come back.”
Wanda Rosseland
Hey! Happy Birthday, Andrew.
I love reading your thoughts on the blog, always inspiring as you are.
We’ll go “and many moooooorrrrrrrreeeeee.”
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Thank you so much, Wanda! I’m hoping for many more as well! Gotta confound those doctors (“You’re STILL alive???” Yes, I have heard that.)
Jackie Layton
Hi Rachelle,
This year I plan to focus on the word bold. How can I be bold in spreading the message of Jesus Christ? How can I be bold in little things and big things? Based on Acts 4:29 I hope to speak God’s word with great boldness. I’m pretty quiet, so I’ll only accomplish with God’s help.
Happy New Year!