I had meant to blog a month ago, at the start of Advent, which begins the new liturgical year in the Catholic calendar, as I make a lot of my more religious New Year's resolutions then. I'm off to a decent start on those, and I hope to grow a lot more as time goes on. My resolutions for the soul in liturgical year 2014 are:
1) Thank God every morning when I wake and each night when I go to bed. I've often been God's ungrateful little brat in my prayer life, and I think just two little thank You prayers each day would do wonders in improving my attitude.
2) Attend weekday Mass when possible, as well as Adoration. During the Christmas break, I got to Mass the day after Christmas, which is my Mom's birthday (remembering you at the Altar, where it counts), and I hope to take special advantage of that at times when school's not in session.
3) Daily Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet. I'm always in a better place, even if the world is crumbling around me, when I'm faithful to those devotions.
4) Be less grumpy and more pleasant, even when people and life are not.
Now on to my temporal ones. I was going to get a whole big workout routine going, but then I realized getting involved in those things always seems to be going through the motions with me. So I decided to live by the motto, "I'm corporeal, not athletic." Sounds healthy, right? That said, in all seriousness, I'm going to eat healthier (specifically more fruits and vegetables and less junk), and exercise three times a week. Even if there's no specific routine, I figure fifteen minutes of cardio and fifteen minutes of some sort of strength training to start. Get moving and active, and the routine will come, and stop stressing and obsessing about it.
Last summer, I recorded four original acoustic songs. I resolve to get those released as an EP. I'll keep you posted on it. I also have a plan to record and release a Christmas album (combined originals and traditional songs). It will be an a capella compilation, and I already have the interest from the rest of the quartet. The plan is to record over the summer, and have it ready for release by the fall.
Begin at least one thing off my "I want to learn" list. Oh, and I recently wrote down a list of things I want to learn, whether it's a skill, a language, religious writings, political writings, economic writings, etc. I want to get a serious start on at least one thing. When I make progress, I'll share it.
The last thing originally on the list, well I probably gave myself enough to cry about last year by getting into putting myself down. Enough of that! No more scrawny talk, no more weak talk, no more obsessing over past mistakes. Somehow, sometime this year, at least once, I plan to give myself a reason to weep for joy. I'm building myself up, not out of a sense of superiority, but out of respect for myself as a child of God. If Jesus calls me to love my neighbor as myself, then I should have a healthy, unconditional love for myself, so as to love my neighbor better.
One other thing, added right before the end of the year, is to be a lot stricter with my household budget. Without going into public detail, we're careless about what we spend. There are going to be a lot of spending cuts in the Mankowski family. Hey Congress! Mr. President! If you have the NSA monitoring my family for some of my writings, I urge you to pay attention now. This is what we do. If we can't afford something, we'll either eliminate or reduce it.
That said, it's almost lunch time. Time for a quick workout, followed by finishing off some leftovers with a side salad, so I'm not throwing away food. Happy New Year!
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