I know that New Year’s resolutions are supposed to be made in the cold dark days of January, when we are sufficiently penitent after consuming all those extra calories and feeling drained after all those holiday festivities.

But I have never been able to keep any New Year’s resolution that I made in cold, bleak, dreary January.

This year, however, a New Year’s resolution found me in mid-November.

I had been thinking about the slogan “keep it simple.”  It started when my husband and I were in Colorado in the fall and had a long discussion about what would make our lives more meaningful and enjoyable when we came home. It’s a cliche to say you’re busy in retirement, but we are. We have a wonderful family, including four grandchildren and another on the way. We are also busy with outside activities and community and fellowship.

That day Frank and I talked, in Colorado, I decided that for me what I could contribute was keeping life simple. It was obvious that I needed to do that because I have less energy as I grow older, less capacity to do things in the complicated ways I used to. I also have a shrinking amount of time, given all my other obligations and joys.

Keeping it simple is hard for me. I’m a perfectionist. I want to find the perfect answer to every problem. Which, to be honest, often involves doing research, dragging in extraneous tasks, and either taking a long time to finish a project or not getting it done at all. There are other reasons keeping it simple is hard for me: I can get fixated on getting something done, even if it’s not important, or doesn’t need to be done that day.  Also, I don’t like doing less in a day; I get a lot of self-esteem out of crossing things off my “to do” list, even if they probably shouldn’t have been on it in the first place!

We came back from Colorado to a wet, warped kitchen floor and damaged cabinets, caused by a malfunctioning dishwasher. I was dismayed but also had to laugh, saying “God, you really have a sense of humor!” Here was a big new opportunity to keep it simple.

But more and more life events kept piling onto us, on top of our full kitchen renovation, and I realized that I needed to make “keep it simple” not a nice thing to think about but a lifestyle change.

Then I woke up in mid-November with a phrase running through my head: “my year of keeping it simple.”

So here is my New Year’s resolution:  I have a special file on my computer and every day I make an entry in it for that day, about how I am going to keep it simple for that day. So far, entries include combining trips to the basement to get things, giving away items of clothing that I like but never wear (instead of trying to figure out when I could wear them), and using the phrase “good enough” instead of trying to do every task perfectly. Keeping it simple has quickly taken on spiritual aspects for me as well: Giving up regrets. Giving up trying to change other people, places, and things. Practicing compassion and forgiveness for myself and others.

Every day I end my “keeping it simple” journal entry for that day with the following words, which will be the first words I see the next day, before I do my next journal entry:

“Keep It Simple:”

Did I do it?

I hope that this New Year’s resolution lasts longer then all my others have. I think it will. And if it does, perhaps I’ll report back to you in 2026 about what changed in my life as a result of a year of this down-to-earth and yet spiritual practice.

Wishing all of you a blessed day, and the wisdom to make the small daily choices that enrich your lives.