I love this, Kel, as I’ve loved so much of your writing this year. Keep it up.

I want to embrace your wonderful approach so badly, but I have trouble. My “Year of …” becomes the “Year of Writing More”, the “Year of Writing Better”, and “The Year of Finding Someone to Pay Me For My Writing”. I’m liking your “Year of Making My Kids Feel Great About Themselves”, but I also need the “Year of Launching Stuck Kids Safely and Successfully” and the “Year of Everyone Just Sit Down and Shut Up”. I’d like to embark on the “Year of Tiptoeing Further Out of My Comfort Zone” and the “Year of Minor Travel” (perhaps those could be bundled). How about the “Year of Drinking Less but Not so Much Less That it’s Not Fun”? Or the “Year of Finally Really Getting My House Clean”? I want the “Year of Patience” and the “Year of Bust Out”, but they don’t seem to go together. The “Year of Calm” sounds nice. Or the “Year of Reading More”. Oh, I know — the “Year of the Settling Hormone Storms, the One Where I Get My Brain and my Nervous System Back”. I want that one, too.

You see my problem. I want them all. I went to a beautiful, end-of-year yoga class a few days ago where we did a long, guided meditation called “Nidra”. In the beginning, as we sunk into supposed peace, the teacher asked for us to ‘set our intention’ for the coming year. She said it should be stated (silently) in the present affirmative (is that a thing?) and could be anything at all — she suggested “I am strong” or “I am a good mother”, but encouraged us to come up with our own. Well, I was off on a mental rabbit chase, brilliant meditation practitioner that I am — I want both of those and came up with a ridiculous running thought stream of many others.

So, what’s mine? Do I have to pick one? Can I rotate them or something?

Perhaps I should pick something like the “Year of Focus” or the “Year of One Thing”.

I can’t pick.