How will you measure your time this year? My book, Time Measured Out! suggests this question about time? I am starting 2026 with reflection and intention because I always wonder on New Year’s Day. What does this year hold? How will I achieve my dreams? Is my writing authentic? How will I grow as a writer?
Also, today I joyfully joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I agreed to writing a blog post every day in January, tweeting using the hashtag #blogboost, posting it on the UBC website, and commenting on 2 other blog posts. Yes, it’s a big commitment, but I did it in November 2021 and had a great experience. I learned new ideas to enrich each blog, so I’m sure I will learn more this year.
From my new poetry collection, Time Measured Out!, here’s an excerpt of one of the poems that displays my usual intentions:
I fashioned this poem after Emily Dickinson’s “I Dwell in Possibility.”
July 26, 2002
I dwell in possibility . . .
It's a rich life Full to the brim. I face it in every question that comes. I move from abundance. I have all I need. I have all I want. What a sweet refuge!
Both formats of Time Measured Out! are available now:
My intention for this year moves away from my five-book poetry series for awhile to a serious topic: the effect of being an incest survivor and the healing available. In 2016, I wrote over 50,000 words of an autofiction, an autobiography fictionalized. The flurry created by the Epstein Files and all of the survivors’ betrayal forced me to return to this book to support the victims. My story illustrates my pain and my healing. So, 2026, I plan to focus on the revision of this book and releasing as soon as possible. Then I will return to my poetry series.
Are goals powerful? Dreams, aspirations! I’ve been a goal-oriented person for most of my life. I’d like to share one experience I had many years ago and then a current one.
Goals at Washington Middle School in the 90s
In the 90s, I held the position of technology coordinator for Washington middle school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, along with my teaching assignments. Our school realized the importance of networking the building and the future of the internet. We were on the cusp of having a networked school. The internet held the future.
At our end-of-the-year tech committee meeting, we brainstormed our technology needs for the next year. I reminded this hard-working committee the rules of brainstorming (and dreaming big): any idea goes—don’t hold back. The list went on and on. They took me at my word—their vision astonished me! That night I typed up the long list, the list that encompassed all of our hopes and dreams!
We made our tech plan based on this list, our goals for the next year. Then we presented the proposal to our legislators who would fund our technology needs, and. . . We achieved everything on the list that next year!
That lesson stuck in my mind over the years when I faced mountains to climb that seemed unattainable!
Goals Now as an Author
So, after joining a book coaching group this year, our coach Derek Doepker, encouraged us to set a goal for our book sales for 2023. Even though I’m a goal-oriented person, I had never done that! Then he added a caveat: expand it by 10. So, I did, and this was in September or October. Much of 2023 was already gone.
I wrote my goal on a post-it and said it out loud every day. Also, I wrote it on a small board and placed it by my desktop computer to remind me of it. Recently, I have been advertising my new book like crazy—much more than I have ever done before.
Now, here we are twenty-one days until the end of the year! Have I reached my goal? No, not even close! So what do I do?
I decided to share my dilemma with you and maybe you could help! Any of my seven books count towards this goal—e-book, paperback, hardback or audiobook.
2021 is here! Yahoo! Happy New Year! Whew! I thought it would never come! Closing 2020 with a quiet bang, I look to opening up 2021 with enthusiastic gusto!
But like so many others, I reminisced about meaningful past New Year’s Eves, and one repeatedly came to mind. In 2017 many square dance callers and dancers met in Green Valley, Arizona to witness Marshall Flippo call at his last square dance on New Year’s Eve 2017.
Flippo’s Last Dance 2017
Many national callers came out to see their mentor and friend end a 60 year+ career. Numerous dancers traveled from far and wide to hear Flippo call one last time. I felt the magic in the air that night—sadness mixed with deep love and appreciation. I will never forget that evening nor my dear friends in attendance.
This year, we celebrated a quiet one. We watched “Bells of St. Mary” with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman and cried at the ending even though we had seen it before. After the movie, we prepped an elk roast and vegetables to cook in the crockpot overnight for our New Year’s Day dinner. Then we ended the year watching the celebration on the plaza in Santa Fe, NM—what a New Mexican party it was. I loved that they sang, “Las Mañanitas!” to bring in the new year!
So, let’s talk about this new year. 2021 is an empty book, a new chapter, today a blank page in my life! What will I do in 2021 with still so much uncertainty? Yes, we have the vaccine, but not many people have been inoculated yet. So, we need to be cautious and use those familiar safety suggestions:
Masks
Social distancing
Wash, wash, wash our hands
That just reminded me of a hilarious experience Lin and I had on cruises we have taken. Greeting us at the door of any restaurant onboard, two ship employees sprayed our hands with sanitizer and sang, “Washy, washy.” What made this so hilarious was the enthusiasm they did their task with—smiles and pure joy! I wish most Americans handled all the safety suggestions with such joy and enthusiasm!
So, as I ponder 2021, I think about a day in this year as being a blank page—the nemesis of many writers. I love the sight of a clean page, a new year, a new beginning. I choose what’s written there. I choose my attitude with which I face each day. I choose to be positive and proactive.
So, I spent part of yesterday and today reading book marketing ideas to prepare for this new year as an author. I jotted down several new ideas to incorporate into my plan for 2021. I also thought about how I want my life to be different, especially incorporating what I learned in my solitude in 2020.
A Word Cloud of My 2021 Goals
So, here’s my list (more than book marketing stuff):
Publish a new book, Bitter or Better: My Year’s Coronavirus Journey
Do my daily Quiet time
Dance
Attend recovery meetings
Dance
Promote my books, especially the Flippo book at dance events
Dance
Exercise
Dance
Spend time outside in nature
Dance
Connect face-to-face or virtually with family and friends
Dance
Recreational Reading
Dance
Visit our family ranch in Colorado
Dance
As you can see, dancing tops my list of activities I want to add back this year.
As I face 2021, a year with possibilities, adventures and people, I wonder. I know I thought 2020 had all those possibilities. Will this year be different or more of the same? I’m sure the first part will feel very similar to 2020, but hopefully mid-year 2021 will take a turn towards normalcy.
What do you think?
I do want to end with some 2020 humor. This was shared our Next Door app before the end of the year, and I thought it was hilarious:
2020 – A YEAR IN REVIEW!!! I hope everyone can get a chuckle from this!
The dumbest thing I ever bought was a 2020 planner.
I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone He asked me what I was wearing.
2019: Stay away from negative people. 2020: Stay away from positive people.
The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house & their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors! 5. This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her dog. It was obvious she thought her dog understood her. I came into my house & told my cat. We laughed a lot.
Every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit. Pajamas will have you believe all is well.
Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands?
This virus has done what no woman has been able to do. Cancel sports, shut down all bars & keep men at home!
I never thought the comment, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6-foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are! 10. I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.
I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to the Backyard. I’m getting tired of the Living Room.
Appropriate analogy. “The curve is flattening so we can start lifting restrictions now” is like saying: “The parachute has slowed our rate of descent, so we can take it off now.”
Never in a million years could I have imagined I would go up to a bank teller wearing a mask & asking for money.
~HAVE YOU ORDERED A PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE FLIPPO BIOGRAPHY FOR A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR A LOVED ONE OR YOURSELF? AVAILABLE NOW! Go to the homepage on my website & pay for it there: https://www.laradasbooks.com
~Here’s Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When Its Christmas Time in Texas”:https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
ALL FOUR E-BOOK FORMATS OF FLIPPO’S BIOGRAPHY AVAILABLE NOW:
Daily, I read The Language of Getting Go by Melody Beattie. I thought today’s reading was an appropriate way to start 2019″
Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come.
Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level.
Goals give our life direction.
What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?
Whaat would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life?
Remember, we aren’t controlling others with our goals–we are trying to give direction to our life.
What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career?
What would you like to see happen inside and around you?
Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down–as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go.
Certainly, things happen that are out of your control. Sometimes, these events are pleasant surprises; sometimes, they are of another nature. But they are all part of the chapter that will be this year in our life and will lead us forward in the story.
The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.
Today, I will remember that there is a powerful force motivated by writing down goals. I will do that now, for the year to come, and regularly as needed. I will do it not to control but to do my part in living my life.
The Language of Getting Go by Melody Beattie
Let’s do it now for 2019, OK–write the chapter of my life titled “2019?” Happy New Year and Happy New You!
