I wish I was able to approach the new year with the same sense of excitement I could a few years ago.

To be fair to COVID, my excitement levels went down due to fatigue from accumulating sleep debts way back in my twenties, but now I’m getting superstitious on top of that.

I’m reluctant to be the dumb horror-movie-heroine type who jinxes everyone but the foreshadowing “best year ever” comment.

I’m sure someone, somewhere has already said that (likely millions of people) but, of the people who recognize January 1st as a date of any significance, I suspect way more are in the same scared camp I’m watching 2022 approaching from.

Oh, the things I WANT to do this year haven’t decreased. I’d love to travel again, visit friends and family, write a book a month, win the lottery, and go on a year long cruise and write about it, but the reality is, well,

REAL.

2022 will likely be very much the same as 2021. 2020 was the real curve ball of the past 20 years for all of us of course.

I remember how freaked out we all were in 1999, worrying if all the computers and power would be toast and we’d descend back to a Mad-Max-esque landscape.

That didn’t happen of course. Apparently, computers were smarter than we are. And, over the next twenty years, they’ve slowly taken over more and more of our lives.

Wait a minute—what year does Skynet launch in the Terminator? Crap….

Well, not much I can do about that. As much as I love creating and reading fiction, I’m going to keep living in the real world. While that doesn’t mean nothing bad will happen—far from it—I’m going to do the thing that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other. I’m going to focus on the future, and what I want to achieve and see in the world around me.

I may not have any control over computers, or viruses, or the climate as an entity, I can control my daily actions.

I can do more things:

Be more grateful, mindful, intentional. Write a little every day, move my body more, get more sunshine, walk in nature, laugh with my kids, make time for friends and family.

And I can do less:

Buy less, waste less, complain less, procrastinate less, go on social media less. Accumulate less.

Basically, I’m going to do in 2022 what I’ve been working toward my entire life. Continuing to appreciate the blessings I have, and trying to make a positive change in the world around me, one small step at a time.

Because isn’t that the only thing anyone can do? Keep putting one foot in front of the other, heart pointing to the things that matter most.

Happy new year, and all the best to you and yours in 2022.

H. M. Gooden