Low Resolution

Une femme doesn’t really do New Year’s resolutions anymore. For more years than I care to admit, my staunch resolution each year was to Lose Weight™, usually accompanied by a heaping cup of self-flagellation. But that old adage about the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result) finally made it through my diet-addled brain, and I gave up on that little exercise in futility. (Don’t let that ad campaign fool you…Weight Watchers IS A DIET.)
Besides, autumn has always seemed more like the time of year of new beginnings. It’s probably a holdover from school days, with new classes and teachers and books and, of course, clothes. Autumn is the time when I tend to do the most wardrobe replenishing, as fall fabrics and colors generally work best for me. Autumn is also the time of the Jewish High Holidays, when we renew our committment to tikkun olam (healing the world). Incidently, The Manolo in a post from last Friday, has his own lovely version of tikkun olam :
Make the world more super fantastic.
Be kinder to strangers you meet on the street. Tip waitresses generously. Smile at small children and dogs, even when they are naughty. Have the kind word for shop girls and cab drivers. Engage random strangers in pleasant conversations about growing flowers, and your last trip to the circus. Resist the urge to use your walking stick to pummel rude people who talk loudly on cell phones.
Would that everyone had New Year’s resolutions such as these!
But I do have some goals/projects that I’m carrying over from last year, of which de-cluttering my closet predominates. I wrote a few months ago about having too much in the way of “junk food” clothing and accessories, and I’ve renewed my energies toward culling the herd. I’m also expanding the de-cluttering to other areas, e.g. if I’m going to have chocolat, it’s going to be the Good Stuff, I’m not going to feel obligated to finish books that bore me, and I’m going to spend less time shopping and more time in my garden. Oh, and come hell or high water, I’m going back to Paris in the fall.
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7 Comments

  1. Dejapseu: Very good list, particularly alternative uses of the walking stick 🙂

    I am doing a wardrobe feng shui as well. With the help of a wonderful dress-maker who will come home with her van and mobile haberdashery; she will sort through clothes and identify and jointly agree changes and then make alterations for a whole day. Once I know what can be changed has been changed, I shall get rid of the rest make a firm list of shopping and fill the gaps.

    And the whole of Paris is now defence de fumer! No more the smell of lingering tobacco fumes on clothes. Enjoy your trip and best wishes for the surgery.

  2. I’m with you on not getting trapped with resolutions at this time of year. There’d be no time to put them into action anyway, given that I start teaching new classes next week. September always has the new year feeling for me, although then, too, I’m time-deprived thanks to new classes. I’ve got most time to do catch-up and clean-up and get organized and take on new projects in the summertime, oddly enough. Your wardrobe project sounds very worthwhile, and I’m absolutely envious of laviequotidienne’s dressmaker as well.

  3. I did closets last year. Oddly enough I got them all done! Now I’m onto drawers this year. I can’t believe how much stuff I stashed in drawers – some of which I haven’t seen in at least 3 years or more.

    I am an “out of sight out of mind” type person and drawers are the perfect “out of sight” place for me.

    I have also been contemplating taking classes to become a time management/professional organizer. It might suit me… then again it might not. But this seems to be a trend lately and it looks very interesting.

  4. Thanks for sharing Manolo’s post. Nice!

    Love your notion of junk food clothing and accessories. I think I have a pretty “whole foods” approach to wardrobe now. But it took a long time to clean up my diet, uh, I mean wardrobe 😉

    And, I totally agree on the chocolate. I just found a new bar that I am in love with. Have you tried the Lindt extreme dark chocolate with orange? Love this stuff. Need to limit consumption or I could end up at Weight Watchers.

  5. Hope you keep posting, your blog is one I truly enjoy!

    For now I am ding the one thing comes in, one thing has to leave approach… but need more help!

    That specific Lindt chocolate bar is divine!

  6. Yes, W2 (as it’s known among my friends) is a diet… and also a support group.
    Full disclosure: am a lifetime member and rarely at my W2 target weight. But W2 keeps me eating relatively responsibly, for Le Duc is a magnificent cook. I’m turning one of those big zero’s in July and I will use it to lose ten- no one will really see but I’ll feel better.