“Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.”
Flannery O'Connor
Activism aka 'do more' / With a president and vice-president who are about to undo most of the progress our country has made over the last 8 years and are striving to bury our nation under a mountain of negative changes, I have been unbelievably compelled to become more active in politics both locally and nationally. I've done more than my share of writing petitions and walking in protest and voting and brushing up on how our political system works but that's not enough. My voice needs to be out there and I need to make this a concern 365 days a year. I've joined a political reading group to educate myself further and attended meetings at various activist groups. Fledgling steps but they're not tentative per se. I'm driven but I'm finding a path that works for me and where my voice can join others who are stridently calling for accountability.
Learn to drive a stick shift aka manual transmission / I learned to drive at a very young age as many tend to do when you live in the boonies of south Georgia. Before I was even in double digits agewise, I was hurtling around the woods on a three-wheeler or roaring around the yard on the riding lawnmower (at least that's how it seemed to me) or bouncing all over the place on a tractor. Of course I didn't learn how to drive well/better until I was older and I didn't learn how to somewhat drive a manual car until I was a senior in high school. David M was my crush at the time and he had a Volkswagen Vanagon and he taught me how to navigate that old car around the movie theater parking lot. But since my goal was to get David's attention and not how to really learn to drive stick shift, well, I've never truly driven a manual car properly. 2017 is the year!
Buy a house and/or move aka shit or get off the pot / Our house has moved from 'somewhat rustic' to 'holy shit, this place is falling down around us'. We've made do in this ramshackle homestead for the last two years despite the sometimes dripping ceilings and the sink that makes ominous noises but we know we're going to have to start looking for a new place eventually. With the competition for homes in Athens a very serious thing, one puts up with some stupid stuff to get a roof over your head. The city has a booming housing market that has quite the disparity between students and long-term residents, and most home rentals in the area that we want to stay in are way out of our budget. The decision has been made that this is the year we either buy a home in Athens, which will be cheaper than renting and provide us with an investment, or we move to the country (15-20 minutes away) and pay less rent or we move to the city of my dreams. Two fairly realistic and somewhat reasonable goals and then *BAM* there's that one goal that's a little extreme. But something will happen and it'll probably be one of the former, which is fine for now. We're luckier than many, no matter what happens.
Tend a garden at my friend's farm / In the last few weeks I've filled up at least four big ol' tofu buckets with compost materials from the bakery - egg shells, strawberry tops, rinds, pulp, apple cores, etc - with the intent of bringing it all to my friend's plot of land that we tilled on NYE. Add to that a big stack of heirloom seed catalogs (to browse not to compost!) and literature on indigenous plants, and you've got something that'll be taking up a good deal of my free time soon. Plus, I love making scarecrows! Not scary ones, mind you but more like this.
Set a reading challenge / I've got a Goodreads account and I set a goal to read 40 books this year even though I've not completed 50% of these challenges in prior years. Oops! But I've got a good list that I'll update soon, and the stack of books beside my bed and in my Kindle are growing weekly. That's a good sign, right? Right?
Minimize social media / Recently I've tried to shut down a number of sites that are connected to the blog in order to have more control of my output and presentation. Bloglovin' was the main one since I never check it, it won't let you remove or change content and I don't want my blog on it anymore. So, if I unfollowed you there please don't be offended! I was trying to get off the thing entirely and was doing everything I could think of to make it an easier transition but at that point I didn't realize that once you're in, you're in. If anyone has any information how to shut it down and get my old posts off then please let me know! I'm still on Instagram and Goodreads and sometimes Tumblr for fun but I'm off of my other sites including Facebook. The overall goal is to spend more of my free time writing and volunteering.
Write more / I've been working on a book for years now but haven't gotten far and every time I walk by my folder on the desk I get a guilty feeling. I'm not saying I'm finishing it this year but I'd like to make some progress.
Buy only from the items found via the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ (CCIC) Leaping Bunny Program / This is something I've been slowly doing already as I've culled from my already pretty small make-up routine product line all those items which don't fit into the category 'cruelty free'. But I've bulked up on my skincare routine so I've been doing a lot of research to make sure I'm buying the best products for my needs. It's been important to me to try to take care of my body with incremental changes both inside and out, and I think it's just as important to try to do so with as little harm to others as possible.
Visit all of Georgia's natural wonders / There are seven (7) to be exact. And I've been to all of them except one!
Okefenokee Swamp
Providence Canyon
Stone Mountain
Warm Springs
You can link back to Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge and Radium Springs by clicking their names above.
I grew up in the Okefenokee Swamp but have so few pictures on the blog about so I'll need to remedy that by visiting family down south again. The swamp's park is about to celebrate 70 years so maybe I'll make it to that! Providence Canyon - we stopped at during a trip to Appalachicola, FL but I didn't take pictures because the camera was somewhere under a mound of luggage. Stone Mountain - I haven't been to since I was 12 and I really don't want to go back since it's got Confederate icons carved on it and it was the meeting site of the local KKK. Bleh. So, that one you may just have to take me on my word for. As an adult I'm totally baffled at this being a family theme park. If you want to see the unique natural beauty of that area might I suggest Arabia Mountain? Tallulah Gorge was a day long hiking adventure that took hours longer than expected but ended up being an all around fun time. The one I really need to go to is Warm Springs where Franklin D. Roosevelt built a house around some natural, healing waters. Anyhoo, expect a post on this at some point.
Complete the 333 challenge by the end of the year / My friend Cater is one of the most interesting people I've ever known and she's constantly seeking out ways to improve herself and the world around her. During the year we lived together in college, we both had quite the collection of stuff - books, cookware, little bits and bobs, and clothes...lots of clothes. The lots of clothes thing has continued unabated til now. Cater, who has since done things like hike the Appalachian Trail in it's entirety and spent 2 years volunteering to help women in South America and now lives in Asheville teaching trouble youth, has taken the 333 challenge to heart and has completely revamped her wardrobe and accessories to include only 33 items for 3 months. Ahem. 33 items for 3 months. That is minimalism. That is planning ahead. And those are both things that I've been historically terrible about in regards to my wardrobe. But I'm going to give it a go and see what happens. I'm cleaning out my closest and downsizing yet again but this time with some clarity and an idea of where I'm going with outfits and wearability. I'm getting ready! Everything you'll see me in may consist of the same 10 floral dresses, 2 pair of clogs and denim jacket but I'm ok with that.
Exhibit my photography / This may be the easiest one to complete! The Grit has a rotating art exhibit with works of local artists and all I need to do is get my name on the list. Oh, and go take the series of pictures I want. Oh, and figure out framing. Oh, this may not be the easiest thing after all. But I've already set wheels in motion so I can't drag my feet. I'm scouring thrift stores for old frames this week and I bought a new camera lens instead of some vintage clogs I'd been drooling over (one good thing that the 333 challenge will do is keep my thrifting in check) so you know I'm for realsies on this one.
Be kind to others and to myself / Just a reminder. Always.
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