Tick, tock.
When the countdown to the new year reached the final 24 hours, I began a final review of 2020, taking stock of promises made last Jan. 1.
Then, I resolved to volunteer more and lounge less.
Sadly, when I wasn’t walking or working in 2020, I seemed to be lounging. I volunteered for some political efforts but, staying safer at home due to the pandemic, mostly volunteered to operate the TV remote.
A different resolution proved easy to keep during the pandemic. I resolved to walk more and drive less and did I walk.
Spending three-fourths of the year mostly “at home,” I took five-six walks per day. Depending on time availability, some walks were a mile while others were five miles. So I can tick off that resolution as accomplished.
I also resolved to seek out more close encounters in nature.
Again, I succeeded while staying close to home.
I spotted a dozen “backyard” birds to add to my life list, observed coyotes strolling down side streets, ran through a field of muhly grass, nurtured a garden of milkweed and spent an evening watching the clouds drift across the luminous face of 2020’s last full moon.
The year past changed so much about daily life, and yet, my resolutions for 2020 are basically my resolutions for 2021.
I resolve to seek out more close encounters in nature. By year’s end, I hope to be exploring beyond Tampa Bay but I learned in 2020 to cherish what’s outside my front door.
I resolve to walk more and drive less, hoping to keep habits established in 2020 for another year, even a lifetime.
I resolve to volunteer more, with plans to make better use of virtual options offered during the pandemic and hope to connect in person with community groups and campaigns by the summer.
I’m not resolving to lounge less, but I do resolve to lounge differently — beside the pool, at the beach, under a tree, on the pier, in addition to in front of the TV.
In fact, the best way to begin 2021 is to work at this last resolution by lounging on the new Anna Maria City Pier with a beverage, a burger and my Christmas book.
I closed my first Sandscript column of 2020 with a sunny outlook: “Oh, the opportunity in the year ahead.”
Now I’m closing my first Sandscript column of 2021 with steadfast optimism: “Oh, the opportunity in the year ahead.”