2012 - That's all folks!

Hi everyone,

Well, New Years Eve dawned cool and clear at Shepparton.  I slept well - only woke once in the night at about 4am with the moonlight shining through the window.  When I went outside (when the sun was actually up) the morning air was cool and had that fresh-yet-tired smell you only get inland.  Like many things, it took me back to childhood holidays around Albury.  As did the cupboards inside the house.  Have you ever noticed how country cupboards always seem to look the same?

The day underway, we loaded the steers from the yards.  They've done well at Shepparton and are well rounded and in great shape.  Perhaps too great, as two of them managed to hurdle the fences inside the yards!

 

We drove back by way of the Hume Highway, and as we went I got a couple of good photos across the Great Dividing Range.

 

The first port of call on the way was the property at Mt Martha where we've put two of the steers, and then brought the remaining steers back here.  The remainder of the day was fairly quiet and I was able to do a bit more on the outline of an article which now looks like it can subsume some of the other research I've done on Millennialism and the NeoConfederate Movement.

I've been trying to think of what to write about 2012 and about resolutions for 2013.  Goddammit, why doesn't Microsoft come out with an "insightful inspiring summary" macro?  As to 2012, it remains a year about which, against all probability, I feel pretty lucky, for the reasons I set out here.

As to 2013 ... I have some thoughts which I fit together in a way I can't quite see.  First, I spent part of this afternoon re-reading a diary I kept over the last 6 weeks of 1999, really the last time I kept a steady diary before I began this blog.  As I read it, I was struck by how the familiar issues of work and career and life choices and identity loomed as large for me then as they have since.  Perhaps I should feel upset that, despite being almost 35 years old (and therefore halfway through my allotted three-score years and ten), I haven't got my life all sorted out.  I'm surprisingly OK with this.  I'm pretty sure that despite countless wrong turns (and, it should be said, many many right ones), I'm still on the right track.  As long as I keep trying, I'll get to the point I want to reach eventually.  The worst fate I can imagine is to give up, and find myself in two decades time, some sad broken down schmuck in the Chatham Hotel, wondering where the Hell his life went.  On that note, I saw an insightful comment on someone's blog the other day: As long as you keep trying to do what is right, God will always have one of three answers to your prayers -

"Yes"

"Not yet"

"I have something better in mind".

The other thing I saw that I've been thinking about is something I read on SarahJane's blog over at Just the Two of Us which (if you'll forgive me) I'll quote at length.  She gave a link to an address called "Of Regrets and Resolutions" by Dieter Uchtdorf, a leader of the Mormon church, and explains that -

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing...

He highlights three things that people say they regret when they look back on life.

1. They wish they spent more time with the people they loved.

He tells us we need to develop deep connections with those who mean the most to us.

2. They failed to become the person they feel they should have been.

They feel they failed to live up to their full potential. 

 

3. They wish they had let themselves be happier. Sometimes we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey

There is something in each day to embrace and cherish.. if only we will see and appreciate it.

With that in mind, I'm leaning towards these as my resolutions/goals/whatevers for 2013.

1. Be a better "Dad at a Distance" to Grace and Rachel.  I think I've been OK (but not more than OK) at this so far, so some googling and reading will hopefully give me more to work with.  This is particuarly important as it appears this situation will persist for the foreseeable future.
2. Try and have as good relations with Joni as I can.
3. Keep writing and publishing.  For preference longer and more scholarly work, but if all else fails, letters and whatever else can be had.
4. Keep getting fit and losing weight.  I've been doing pretty well with this: since starting my current health kick, I've gone from nearly 100kgs to 86kgs, with a goal of 80kgs.  So I guess I keep doing what I'm doing.
5. Do a course - preferably a respectable one - in archaeology or museum studies.  I want my little princesses to be able to say "my Dad's not just another lawyer ... he does something cool!"
6. Keep and strengthen my friendships.  I've been pretty dreadful about keeping friends; there's never a bad time to try and nudge the edges of your comfort zone on this sort of thing.
7. Be a better brother to my sisters.  This year I've come to appreciate them more than ever: Oldest Sister Economist's clear-sightedness and practicality, Second Oldest Sister's unconditional love and gentleness, and Little Sister's good sense and patience.
8. Let go of bitterness.  I've been better about this in recent months, but I need to keep resistng the temptation to hang on to a sense of having been wronged.  It's almost never warranted and is usually because one wants a quick sense of a right to God-like vengefulness.
9. Learn more from other bloggers.  I've met a great many very very good people through blogging, and many of them really have their lives sorted.  I am not so proud that I don't want to learn from people who are doing great things!
10. Put more into my faith.  Sometimes, I have to confess, I feel a bit mechanical about it - I guess because it's such a liturgically oriented faith.  While I don't yield an inch as to Catholicism's doctrinal correctness, there's a lot of things I think I can learn from our Protestant friends, especially their devotion to studying the Scriptures and their sense of a real relationship with God. 

So there you have it, my wrap for the New Year.  Either way, I am hopeful.

This is the day that the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it: Psalm 118:24

See you in 2013!