Hey, remember the 3+2 Things I wanted to accomplish for my 32nd year? Yeah, I do, too (vaguely). How about a halfway report?
The first two of the three quantitative goals were:
1. Take a fiction writing class
2. Write 3 short stories
Earlier this year I signed up for a class on plots (not the evil villain kind; the novelistic kind) but it was canceled due to lack of registrants. I still want to see what’s offered in the fall and try to make this happen.
I thought the third thing would be the easiest:
3. Read a new book a month
But it’s been seven months and as far as new fiction goes, I’ve read parts of Brideshead Revisited and 1984 and two Jeeves & Wooster short stories. I’m still hopeful that I can get some more reading time in by the pool this summer.
As for the “+2” qualitative goals
+1. Be happier in my work
Um, this is coming along, kinda sorta maybe. I have to remind myself of this hippie quote.
+2. Less judgment, more compassion
Finally, something I feel like I’ve actually been working on for the year. I won’t say I’ve “accomplished” this, as there are moments every day with people or traffic or any other trigger, but I’ve found that repeating this saying from The Dharma Bums really helps:
I run all my friends and relatives and enemies one by one in this, without entertaining any angers or gratitudes or anything, and I say, like, “Equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha.”
(I think it also helps I’ve been around someone pretty regularly for a few months–nothing like having someone to be nice to to show you the ways you’re not.)
So that’s where the goals for the year stand. As my inner hippie says, it’s all about the journey, right?