Archive | December 2019

2020 Vision

Dec12

It’s kind of cool that this year is 2020, which is also what we use to describe perfect or clear vision 20/20. Will this coming year live up to that name and bring clarity with it? Only time will tell, but it’s interesting that so many people are waking up to new and also old, ideas on health, nutrition, finance, business, politics, history, and so on. It’s a time for truth–well, at least some truths–to come back into the mainstream. The search for truth is also a search for purpose and so many of us see each new year as a new chapter to try again at being who we want to be and to meet the goals we want to meet, whether it’s losing weight, eating right, saving more money, and preparing for the future.

The past couple of months I’ve been a bit obsessed with checking out planners for the new year. After much debate, I settled on a $10 planner from Walmart that says 2020 in flowers on it, and also decided to keep using an small notebook I have for on the go. After checking out some high end planners that are very cute, my desire to get my finances under control won out–a good thing for my pocketbook.

Since new years are for trying new things, I thought I would splurge on a budget planner and for some reason I settled on a complicated one from The Budget Mom. The Budget by Paycheck Workbook is a tome, a hefty, doorstop tome, but if it keeps me fiddling with numbers instead of perusing shops and books on the internet, then I win. Also, it’s really not that complicated, but seems so at first. My favorite part is the calendars. The visual of seeing what days I need to pay bills or spend on certain things is great! It’s so simple, but writing it down really helps me focus and remember. It was a little pricey, but I think it’ll be worth it in the end. And I like her spunk and way of explaining things.

Another new planning tool I’m trying out in 2020 is a bullet journal. Never really knew what these were before and just started looking them up one day. Well, I am not very artistically talented, so my journal will likely not have any cool pictures and trackers, but why not give it a try and see if it helps motivate me in my writing? Plus, it is fun to at least try and be creative in a way other than writing stories. Again, I turned to Walmart to start and found a dot journal for $10. If I like bullet journaling, maybe I’ll move up to a Moleskin or Leuchtterm.

Finally, I have a regular journal from Barnes and Noble and made of leather. Since I am as terrible at keeping up with journals as I am at keeping up with planners, again, I’m trying something new: Journaling as if I’m writing to those I love. Hoping this motivates me to put down more than: Woke up, had coffee, went to work, read this book, watched this movie.

My vision for this year is to actually have a consistent vision for the year, and goals that come with that, especially for both writing and finances. Already writing things down more helps me pay better attention and remember those cool story ideas that flicker past and normally just disappear. Tracking both areas of my life will help motivate me towards results, not just getting by. Better planning will help be better use the gifts and blessings God has given to me. What’s your vision for 2020? Is it clear?

Raskol

Dec5

This week I’m reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky for the third time. Read it the first time in French and Russian Lit in college. Never had I ever read any of those authors before, and I was blown away. We also had to read parts of Les Miserables, which I loved also, but have never, ever managed to finish. The first two times reading C&P I read the translation by Constance Garnett. This time I’m reading the one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. It’s a crackling, fresh translation, but then, any translation would be or would appear to be, because the story has a snap about it, drenched in a pathos that is somehow never wallowed in. This is the Dostoevsky writing I like, in C&P and The Idiot. Although I made it through them, I couldn’t stand Notes from Underground or The Brothers Karamazov.

Raskolnikov is relatable in the sense that from time to time we all struggle with this necessity and nuisance of having to have work and earn our daily bread. Most people, though, don’t resort to plotting murder and think of ourselves as secret kings or Napoleons above the law in order to get out of it. Incidentally, I’d forgotten Raskol’s first name was Rodion. Ugh. I’m glad he’s referred to by his last name most of the time and that it sounds like rascal. Despite being a murderer, I’ve always kind of liked him as a character. Now that I’m older, though, we’ll see if my opinion is the same.

This is a book in which character after character is given the opportunity to do the right thing, and they continually choose the opposite, at least at the beginning of the story. They do at least begin to do the right thing, but spiral downward, a very human trait. I don’t even remember whether Raskol turns himself in or not at the end, but am excited to find out. It’s also making me want to read both The Idiot and Little Dorritt again, which is by Dickens, but also about people in debt. If you’re looking for good, long stories to read this winter, check out the classics. So many are so, so good.