Touch the page every day
Resolutions and resolve for a healthy, happy 2024
I’ll just say it: The page is a damn scary place.
Or at least it becomes so the longer you stay away from it. The best advice I’ve ever read/received as a writer is simply to do it - put words on the page. Ideally, every day.
But for those of us with an internal composition of 50% caffeinated, 30% ADHD, and 20% procrastinator, simple daily habits are not so simple to establish. Maybe that’s why I’ve long been obsessed with the ritual of the New Year. Maybe that’s why, in my estimation, there’s hardly anything sexier than the kind of discipline that’s maintained over time. Kept resolutions awe me. I’m desperate to know how some people make them look so easy.
Take my husband, for example. He is the single healthiest eater I’ve ever met. He begins every morning the same way - with a big bowl of oats - and he rarely indulges in anything fried, sweet, or overly processed. When I grill him about his willpower, he answers very simply, “I don’t have a gallbladder. It’s not hard to turn down food that makes me feel sick.”
I consider his obedience to his gut as I think about the ways our bodies and brains send signals about what’s healthy for us and what’s not. And I don’t just mean diets. Anyone who’s been in a bad relationship, tackled a life change, or felt scared to confront an inconvenient truth about their life can attest to how internal conflict manifests in the body. We’re always receiving messages. We’re just not always willing to respond.
The word “resolve” has many meanings, among them, the act of dispersing or healing an ailment. Wouldn’t it be an interesting shift to approach our New Year resolutions from this mindset? Instead of thinking about how to improve upon ourselves (because, hey, most of us are already doing our personal best), we considered how to resolve that which is ailing us.
The truth is that I’ve been avoiding the page for a few months now. I’m guilty of doing the thing creatives sometimes do: temporarily abandoning a project and then trying to find a way back in. The author Bianca Marais likens it to entering a building. Do you go through the front door? The back door? The cellar? In some cases, a writer has to try a dozen false entries before finally settling into a project. But doors and windows left untouched will never open, and I am guilty of sitting back and examining the building without actually getting near its walls.
What’s true about myself is likely true about others: The thing we most avoid is the thing we most need to do. It’s the ailment that requires our resolve.
At the end of every year, there are a thousand hot takes about resolutions (I guess this counts as one too!) and every year it seems there are more and more naysayers. I appreciate this diversity of opinion as each expands my vision for the year ahead (below I’ve included a few of my favorite takes). But regardless of whether you believe in resolutions, it’s hard to deny their inherent value in keeping us accountable - to ourselves and, if we’re brave, to others.
“Touch the page every day” was advice I scribbled down while attending Aspen Words last summer. For me, it means confronting the beast. Sitting in front of the blank page and exploring its many imperfect possibilities. It’s about staying close to the creative material, not putting it out of sight.
And if, at its root, touching the page is about turning toward - not away - that which we’re tempted to avoid, I think the advice applies to non-writers as well. Maybe it’s a relationship that needs mending or a persistent cough you’ve been too nervous to see a doctor about. Maybe it’s a courageous conversation with a spouse or parent, a hard look at your credit card bill, or a phone call to a therapist. Touching the page is about staying with that uncomfortable task, turning it over and around, examining it from new angles.
As we consider the year behind us - one that, from a global perspective, included heartbreak and suffering on a unfathomable scale - it’s easy to recognize what a privilege it is to sit in this period of reflection and plan for the future. For those of us fortunate to exist in this space, may the resolve we bring to our own lives allow us to also turn our attention outward.
Here’s to the gift of another year.
New Year Inspiration
My dear friend/kindred spirit, Julie Chavez, has written a book! It’s out in a week (but you can pre-order now!). In the meantime, don’t miss Julie’s brilliant piece in the NY Post, “My New Year’s Resolution Is To Treat Myself Like I Treat My Kids.”
Need a little inspiration? Check out the NY Times piece, The New Year’s Resolutions That Changed Your Lives. I especially loved the idea of a daily “Joy Note!”
Here’s an easy resolution to start the year: watch American Symphony on Netflix. I’ve been a huge fan of Suleika Jaouad ever since I read her powerful memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She and her husband, the acclaimed musician Jon Batiste, share their intimate journey of sorrow and joy in this beautiful documentary. Their story will inspire you to move through the days ahead with creativity, gratitude, and fierce love.