First of January

Posted on by Ilze

Everyone seems to be making New Year’s resolutions today. Lists, goals, promises to become someone faster, better, more disciplined. That has never really been for me.

If anything, I feel ready to do the opposite — to slip deeper into winter. To rest. To unwind. To let life move slowly for a while.

Outside, the year has changed. Inside, I’m still very much in winter mode. And that feels right.

I’m puzzling with a Hallmark movie playing quietly in the background. No plans. No pressure. Just warmth, softness, and the permission to be exactly where I am.

Maybe this is my kind of slow living.
Not resolutions — just rest.

Tomorrow I return to work after being off since the 12th of December — three full weeks away. It feels like a gift.

Normally we have 21 vacation days per year, but because I also have occasional “not-at-work” days to help balance life, sometimes working a full week, sometimes only four days, I ended up with a few days left at the end of the year.

And so — another vacation. Three weeks in total.

Ilze

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13 thoughts on “First of January”

  1. Absolutely. I’m with you on “resolutions”. I once decided to swear less,
    but all my friends at the knitting group said “please don’t stop
    swearing”! Winter is best just accepted and leaned into. I don’t have
    any problems with it. There is a saying – “no such thing as bad weather,
    just the wrong clothes” . . .

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    1. This saying always reminds me of my uncle. He passed away 13 years ago. He was deeply into photography, even built his first camera himself, and spent his vacations cycling through the Arctic, sleeping in the tundra. He used to joke about sharing his dinner with mice, then gaining all the weight back once he returned to his office job, working on fire safety regulations.

      It was his saying, and every time I hear it, it brings back the loveliest memories—like sleeping in a car on New Year’s night in the 1980s, in a Zaporozhets, out in the cold. I wasn’t cold at all. I was five.

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  3. Table looks so nice. I don’t believe in resolutions because they are wishes and we know how many of them get checked off. Instead I write a short list of goals and a system to stay focused on acheiving them. Works much better for me. 🙂 Happy 2026!

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  5. Oh, I gave up making ‘resolutions’ a long way back . . . we all know to then count the days in the New Year until we break them and feel weak and undisciplined as a result! Take each day as it comes – you yourself know when you want to and can as far as anything needed to be done is concerned. Hope most matters do work out during the time you write 2026 and that returning to work is not too ‘painful’ . . . trust the winter surrounding you will be gentle and enjoyable .. .

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  6. Slow living is the best way to live. No pressure, expectations or resolutions, just living each day mindfully and intentionally. May 2026 be happy, peaceful and all you want it to be. 💗

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