Okay, I can say that for forty plus years I have been making a resolution or two. I start off the new year in great earnest  and hope, all worked up to DO IT. When  Memorial Day  sneaks in, I usually realize I haven't made a dent, but that's okay, still half a year to go-I can still Do IT. By September, I panick, I haven't made a scratch and I need to DO IT. All of sudden I turn and  it's December 31st. Damn It! I didn't Do IT.I feel bad and stupid and swizzle champagne down. I swear the next year will be different. I start commeserating all over again.Only once I DID IT. I resolved not to have a resolution. No resolutions, None.I felt very pleased  with myself at the end of that year.

But this year, I was forced into making promises. This year  my young nieces, ages 7 and 10, stayed with my husband  and me for  five days including New Years. Their parents, both firefighters worked the holiday. We saw  an opportunity to bond  with them before the  teen years kicked in.We could maybe preserve their innocence with us for the time being. It was the seven year olds first attempt to stay awake and make it to midnight.   I believed she would. She was spiraling in dizzy circles with pent up anticipation for who knows what she thought was going to happen at midnight.  To keep them busy during the day, while I did some mundane but essential chores and  to avoid the  constant berage of "What are we going to do now?,"  I instructed them to create a New Years resolution box  complete with festive decorations on the outside,You would write your promises and put them inside only to be referenced at key points in the year to see how you are doing. Saying the latter part to them may have been a mistake because I know they will call and remind me on Memorial Day, Labor Day and finally New Year's Eve of where I stand.  This project did buy me about an hours worth of time. Precious time.

They cut paper ribbons and styrofoam , gluing them on the box , sprinkled glitter and jewels.They carefully presented me THE BOX. I smiled as I noticed in practiced cursive, the ten year wrote across the lip of the box: "New Years Revolutions" With their eager and qustioning faces staring into my eyes, they asked, "What are you going to resolve Auntie?" How could I pass my moment of being the wise elder, my opportunity to mold two innocent minds? Actually, I was stuck and with no way out, I began to write on the pink and yellow decorated paper they handmade to go INTO THE BOX. They offered me huge smiles and nodded their heads up and down as if we just signed Magna Carta. I plan to open the box on Memorial Weekend and see if I am facing the classic reality check and with great effort, I hope to miss the  panic stage of September. The girls told everyone, strangers included, what I plan to "resolve" for 2009. I think, like my 7 year niece who screamed her way past midnight with sheer delight, I just might make it. I've got two little hopeful believing minds to show my example. I can't let the team down.

So,are you with me on that? Damn, I sure hope so because I need all the support I can get. Here goes:

1. Free Write Daily. Even if it's just one word.
2. Get some work published-preferably mine.
3. Brush my dogs teeth more-the bad breath in the morning isn't great to wake up to.
4. Create a vision board-if you see it, you may do it
5.      In honor of the written word on the lip of our box, Do a Revolution -we all want to change the world. My plan is to end  2009  with the world in a better place than it is right now-be it my world, your world, our world or their world. Happy New Year!