The Contented Naturalist

I like setting resolutions. Sometimes I think of them more as goals, especially if it’s something concrete and measurable (like post at least 12 blog entries this year). I’ve heard other folks refer to them as setting their intentions for the year. That speaks to me too, in particular for less definable things. Be more social, for example.

I brainstormed a whole bunch of goals, resolutions, and intentions for this year. Not all of them are directly relevant to being a naturalist, but many are still related to being contented. So here they are.

Family

• I’d like to formalize my “family of choice” a little more this year. I include long-term partners of mine as well as some platonic friends in this category. I’d like to talk with each person about how we are willing/able to show up for each other, and also complete various paperwork for things like emergency notifications (create a phone tree in case I end up in the hospital– who calls whom to let them know where I am?), medical decisions, and of course a will. My bio family is amazing, I’m very lucky. More family seems like a good thing though, especially if we need to defend each other from new government actions.
• I also want to lead intentional community-making with my overall group of friends. I worry with the new administration we might see social safety net components reduced or simply destroyed. So I want to formalize what and how we can provide in our own network. I don’t intend this to be only my work, I hope to get at least a few other folks willing to help organize. So far, my idea is to have everyone list things they’re willing to do/offer for others, like provide transportation, offer shelter in their spare room, be a nonjudgemental listening ear, help move and/or organize someone’s living space, etc. Then when one of our community says, “Hey I need help with X,” it will be easier to match them up with helpers– and hopefully knowing that people already offered things will help break through the intimidation of having to ask for help. I could probably do a whole blog post on this, actually.

Reading–

• I used StoryGraph only occasionally last year. This year I’d like to use it more consistently, to track what I read. I should include both my fiction reading as well as stuff I read for work. I’d also like to include what I’m reading as a blog topic here, now & then. Stay tuned for that.
• I’d also like to read more books by people I know, whether I know them in meatspace or they’re folks I met only online. I can think of three people on my friends list that have at least one book out. Why not give them some of my money by purchasing them?
• I’m also signed up for several newsletters on SubStack, I’m setting an intention of actually reading them each week when they show up in my inbox, rather than just ignoring them as not urgent. I find that the more of other people’s blog-type writing I read, the more I want to write here as well. I’ll have long periods in my commute where I could either read on my phone/a hardcopy book, or listen to an audio book. My new park is much farther away from my apartment than Great Falls was. I will probably be driving in some days, and taking the metro other days.
• Along the same lines as reading audiobooks, I’d like to figure out how to arrange a sort of playlist for podcasts, for the days when I drive in. Right now when I play a podcast, whether it goes to the next episode of the same one, or to the newest episode of another podcast, seems random. I should be able to figure that out– or get one of my friends or partners to show me how they do it.

Outdoors/Nature

• I’m about to start a new job in a couple weeks as I write this– I landed the lead ranger position at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. I am so excited! I have a million ideas to do there.
• One interesting challenge I stumbled upon is called 1000HoursOutside.com. They are “a for-profit, social good company and movement,” according to the web site. The gist is they want kids (and families) to spend more time outside. There’s a blog, podcast, book(s), and merchandise of course. It seems mostly geared toward home schoolers. I wondered how much time I could spend outside in a given year, though. Of course I have an advantage over most people, since my job is to be outside. Even so, I think I’d need specific dedication to spending extra time outside to reach 1000 hours in a single year. The average would be three to four hours every day, of course! Anyway, one thing that particularly struck me was the pretty trackers they offer– coloring sheets with 1,000 segments to color. There’s a mandala, a cross-section of a tree trunk, and various nature pictures. It’s a cool idea to help you keep track and watch your progress. I love trackers that are pretty too.
• I’m also a Birdability Captain now, meaning I’m a community organizer. I’ve been striving to make outdoor events as accessible as I can for a long time now. I’ll be volunteering with Birdability this year, to keep doing that on a more formal level. I’m particularly excited to have that coincide with my new job at Kenilworth, since most of their paths are much more accessible for folks with mobility needs than Great Falls was. Stay tuned for more on this one!
• And of course, I look forward to learning and growing in my new job.

Fitness

• As usual in our society, my doctor wants me to lose some weight. Originally I would have said that’s not a priority of mine though. And I would have preferred to just say, not gain weight. But more and more I’m noticing the extra weight around my midsection being problematic– I feel like it’s harder to bend over because there’s too much of me in the way. So instead now it’s my idea and choice/hope to lose weight, become more fit.
  • And yet I know I struggle to exercise, so I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I have a hard time making myself go somewhere after work. I’d like to lift weights, or I should say I’d like to be the kind of person who lifts weights. But I am leery of joining a gym only to stop going after a month or two. So many other times I’ve tried a self-imposed fitness challenge and stopped just a few weeks in. I wonder if maybe my previous attempts were too ambitious? Should I start smaller? But would a small goal even be worthwhile, if it’s too easy? I talk myself around in circles.
  • Maybe I could take the 1000 hours outside idea and shift it to 1000 hours active. My smartwatch records when I’m active, either when I tell it I’m working out or when it notices my heart rate up (I think). I don’t have to be extremely active to trigger it.
  • I probably could also motivate myself to go play volleyball, if I could find a group. I used to enjoy playing volleyball, one of the few team sports I’ve played and felt like I was skilled enough to belong. I’ll look into that more.
  • I also think I should examine what I’m eating. I’ve been eating bagged salad kits for lunch at work, taking a bag meant to create 3-4 servings and eating the whole thing by myself each day. I rationalized that as getting lots of veggies, but I’m now thinking the amount of calories from the dressing and croutons was excessive.
• My additional fitness goal is to be able to do the splits by a certain milestone birthday that’s coming up this summer. I found a series of daily stretch combinations designed specifically to get one able to do splits. Why do I want to do the splits? It seems like a kind of fun, concrete goal that I can aim for. It would be pretty impressive, I think. But it’s also bite-size. It feels much more doable than running any amount of distance, let alone a race that I have no interest in.

Writing

• I want to post here at least twelve times this year.
• I’m also on BlueSky for microblogging and building communities. No concrete goal there, just to keep connecting.
• I’d like to start writing with friends again. When I had a writing group that met regularly to do freewriting together, that was so much fun. I’ve talked occasionally with a few friends and partners about writing together, this year seems like a good time to follow through.