Issue 19: Release the Resolutions
Plus: "Best of 2020" lists, non-resolutions + a NYE cocktail
Happy almost new year! 2020 opened up this little corner of the internet for me to write and share with you—and to connect with the community we created through WM. I’m endlessly grateful for it. I have lots of ideas for what I want this newsletter to become, and I’m excited for a new year of possibilities.
If you’re new here, you can head to the about page to learn more about me and this newsletter. So happy to have you!
Thanks, as always, for being here, and for continuing to share WM with friends; I cannot understate the joy it brings when a new subscriber alert hits my inbox.
Happy New Year! Here’s to hoping we can make my beachy new year’s day tradition a reality.
Worth Considering: Release the Resolutions
Today is my 37th birthday. Having a birthday that also falls on the last day of the year is both a blessing and a curse—it always feels like a huge opportunity for growth and renewal, and it always feels like a huge opportunity for growth and renewal. Which is to say, it’s a day that’s as hopeful as it is daunting, usually culminating in a mess of emotions I’m barely able to untangle by the Spring equinox. Birthday or not, I imagine most people have similarly dueling sentiments about the new year.
But still, I try to embark on it with calculated optimism. I’ve finally stopped buying yearly planners or recommitting to bullet journaling (who has the time?), relieving myself from unnecessary pressures and inevitable failures. I’ve scrapped traditional resolutions. I’ve even lowered my expectations for the coming year, which sounds depressing but usually makes for a more fulfilling 365 days. Instead, I’m trying to reflect more on the ways I grew personally during the previous year (even just the small wins) and unpacking the ways I could have done a little—or a lot—better.
Mostly though, today I’m reminding myself that I made it through one of the hardest years I will likely experience in my life. It wasn’t the worst year: I celebrated my baby’s 1st birthday; I watched him walk and heard him talk for the first time. I reminded myself how lucky we were to not be one of the millions of families who wondered how they would eat or where they would sleep on any given day. I realized how little we actually need to lead a fulfilling life—and that the most rewarding experiences are tied to the people we share them with.
I can’t know what my 37th year will bring. Probably more long days for the foreseeable future. Hopefully more hugs and laughter and sharing of milestones face-to-face. Like this year and the 36 before it, it will be a hodgepodge of love and loss and adventure and stagnancy and growth and regression and sadness and grief and everything in between. It will be the same as it always was; it will be blindingly, beautifully new.
Worth Rounding Up: The Best of 2020
The internet has endless amounts of “best of 2020” lists, and I love them so. Here are a few of my favorites!
The Year in Photos // NYT
Best Podcasts of 2020 // Bello Collective
The Best Inventions of 2020 // Time
Ultimate Best Books of 2020 // LitHub - their team compiled top books from 41 lists!
Best of 2020 Quarantine Culture // Vulture
Best Film, TV and Albums of 2020 // Variety
Worth Reading: New Year’s Grab Bag
A few NYE/year-in-review pieces to read while distractedly watching Rockin’ New Year’s Eve and/or while you’re hungover tomorrow: The Year of Blur (NYT) // New Year’s Resolutions That Will Make You Happier (The Atlantic) // Improving Ourselves to Death (The New Yorker - from 2018 but still relevant!)
Worth Overhauling: Your Social Media Follows
Catherine Andrews of The Sunday Soother mentioned that every year she unfollows everyone on her social accounts and rebuilds them to create a mindful following, reflecting her interests and values of the current moment. We consume so much passively, so this seems like a great and fairly easy way to reconfigure how we spend our time online. Making this one of my weekend projects.
Worth Spending: Spiritual Cards
If ever there is a time to lean into your hippy-dippy side, it’s at the start of a new year. I’m considering doing a deep dive into astrology in 2021 (I am the most basic), but until then I’m going to pick up a pack of woo-woo spiritual cards, of which there are many: you can choose affirmation cards, mantra cards, reflection cards, or good ol’ tarot cards. There are so many beautiful decks to choose from—start with the selections at Urban Outfitters and Etsy, and fall down the rabbit hole from there.
Worth Resolving: 21 in 2021
Making traditional resolutions for the new year feels like a fool’s errand to me—big, audacious goals that will change your life? No thanks. Author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin (you may know her as the creator of The Happiness Project) started “17 in 2017”—encouraging people to make a list of 17 things they wanted to accomplish over the course of 2017, and she’s revisited the concept each year, this year of course being “21 for 2021.” What I love about this idea is that you can include silly, inconsequential things—like finding a signature scent! or backing up your photos!—as well as more big picture items. Each year I migrate things I didn’t accomplish the previous year but still want to tackle (which is most of them for 2020…), removing ones that aren’t important to me anymore and adding new ones. Pro tip: make them as specific as possible to avoid overwhelm—instead of “travel more” change it to “take one 3-day solo trip each quarter.”
Worth Instituting: New Year’s Traditions
Do you have traditions to accompany the start of the new year? I’ll admit, we don’t, not really. Though we will make pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day (a ritual from Kyle’s Pennsylvanian upbringing), that’s about the extent of it. I’m trying to make a January 1st beach trip a thing—where we bury our regrets of the past year and our wishes for the next in the sand (fun, right? tell my husband that!). If you need some inspiration in creating your own traditions, here, here and here are some leads.
Worth Sipping: HBH’s Citrus Pomegranate Champagne Twist
My apologies for not creating a special NYE cocktail (though I have in the past: try my cranberry sparkler!)—this sipper from Tieghen at Half Baked Harvest seems pretty perfect to me already. I’m skipping the ginger beer and the mint just to keep it simple, and because I have all the other ingredients on hand and this feels like a very adaptable cocktail. Basically today is the day you can add anything to a glass of bubbles and call it a cocktail. Who’s in?
Bonus sips: NYE cocktails (Marie Claire) // Celebratory cocktails (Bon Appetit)
Worth Quoting: T.S. Eliot
“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.”
Honorable Mentions
I’m posting other things I think are worth mentioning over on Instagram, @itsworthmentioning (albeit a little sporadically, as I’m rethinking that space). Follow along there for the things that didn’t make the cut this week, but are still pretty great.
AND! I would love to hear from you: the things *you* think are worth mentioning, your thoughts on this issue, or just a note to say hello. Just hit reply to this email and it will go right to me.