My New Year’s Devolution

(photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash)

Resolutions be damned! My personal devolution begins January 1st, 2024.

I pledge to spend less time cleaning the house and working in the garden. These efforts are mostly meaningless and unappreciated anyhow. Try to think of the last time anyone said to you, “Wow, your kitchen looks so clean!” Never happens. As long as my space is hygienic and there are no creepy-crawlies, I am good.

I have decided to spend less time and energy worrying about what I eat. One thing I have learned this year, through having a chronic stomach issue, is that it really doesn’t matter what food I am eating. Any calories I can keep down that will give me enough energy to carry out my day are fine. I have basically lived the past year on cup-o-soup and canned fruit and my blood test says I’m perfectly healthy.

I vow to spend less time and energy worrying about how I look. I will spend less time in front of the mirror, give up make-up entirely, and skip clothes shopping. I will wear my current outfits for several days in a row without care. As long as I brush my hair and teeth and smell clean, who cares? The truth is, other people don’t even notice what you are wearing anyhow.

I will stop worrying about how other people are doing. I normally feel compelled to check in on my friends to make sure they are doing okay and offer to spend quality time with them. Pshaw! The truth is, I am powerless to change anything in their lives so let them just get on with it!

All this devolution will give me more time for writing! I wish to fulfill my lifelong goal of becoming a scruffy hermitic writer. I will spend hours every day shut into my office, ignoring the world outside and creating my own. I will live vicariously through my characters and barely emerge to eat and bathe. My husband won’t mind this because he will be freed up to bro out with other men while I’m writing. In 2024, I will be living the dream!

How will you devolve in 2024? Please leave a comment below.