I’ve been a long-time resister to resolutions opting instead to have an ongoing list of goals in mind to accomplish and not necessarily at the beginning of a year. I believe anytime is a good time to start something, whether it be a health regimen, job search, therapy, reading goal, or business.
For 2025 I wanted to challenge myself in different ways and I wanted a fun way to keep up with it. I hoped for more fun and adventure. More generosity and connection. More stillness and solitude.
So….B-I-N-G-O
I created a 25 for 2025 BINGO board and used it as the wallpaper on my phone all year. I didn’t fill all the spaces on the BINGO card, but I had fun trying and my friends and family even got involved asking me for a BINGO update every now and then.
A few of the completed items on the BINGO card are:
- eat a raw oyster
- visit a monastery
- attend a local Toastmasters meeting
- have a yard sale
- enjoy a Bloody Mary one Sunday
- climb at Highpoint Climbing
- do a 12 mile day hike
- volunteer at church
There are several undone items on the BINGO card that will make their way onto my 2026 list or card or whatever fun way I decide to keep up with it. Some of the items I never got around to are:
- submit a story for publication
- bungee fitness
- host an online book club
- pitch my dream job
A Good One
BINGO was a fun way to keep up with 2025 but the goodness and beauty of the year went way beyond that. The year was full of wonderful experiences, planned and unplanned, big and small. These are a few of them:
- finished spiritual direction training
- spent a week alone at the beach
- completed the Spiritual Exercises
- spent 2 days in silence on a retreat in the summer
- learned about sushi
- attended TAG in Wichita, KS
- enjoyed an evening of dancing at a jazz club
- danced for 3 hours with my oldest daughter and niece at The Taylor Party
- fell in love with paddleboarding
There were a hundred other good and beautiful things of 2025. I won’t and can’t name them all but I’ll finish 25.
18) The time I wrote and taught a course called Dating After Divorce. 19) The time I went to a real wine tasting with new friends. 20) The day in June I reconnected with one I love 21) Patagonia. O Patagonia! 22) The time I danced at my friend’s daughter’s wedding and helped her move into her new house. 23) The day with all my sisters at my house, our childhood home 24) The day I saw my youngest daughter’s house she just bought.
#25
I’ve recently listened to Ina Garten’s memoir called Be Ready When the Luck Happens. In it she says something I cannot stop thinking about. “There’s a wonderful quote attributed to George Lucas – ‘We’re all living in cages with the door wide open.’ “That was me,” Ina says, “until I realized I had the power and the responsibility to set myself free. To step out of the cage…”
I stepped out of some cages in 2025. I’ll step out of more in 2026.
I’m learning to fly.
Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash
