Weaver sticks to his 2008 resolve

When the year began, I thought I had the rhyme down.

My resolution, my resolve, the theme of the whole year: It's Up To Fate in 2008.

This came following a half-disastrous pledge two years ago, with my best friend, where we loudly crowed while drinking sparkling cider and listening to fireworks boom throughout the Columbia Basin: "Chicks in 2006!"

He got married last year, so we can guess where the disaster half of the proclamation lies.

After much difficulty finding a suitably pleasing rhyme for 2007, I was more then content to leave everything up to fate this year.

However, upon making the decision of leaving the year, and the theme, up to fate, I failed to consider my family, who, upon hearing it, decided to offer their own rhyming words for the year.

While "Regurgitate in 2008" was the unofficial favorite, in the months since, "Do Not Hesitate in 2008" has proven to be the longest lasting and most successful of declarations.

If anything, it's eliminated my tendency to be wishy-washy. Or has it? No, it has.

Now, when faced with a dilemma or a scenario where I really want to do something, I have recalled the theme I have decided upon for the year and plunged ahead bravely, prepared to accept the consequences head on and let the fates deal with the rest.

So that original, intended theme is still very much in play as well.

Like, when wondering if I should drop a line to people I haven't heard from in a while, wondering if perhaps there's a reason on their end communication has dropped off on my end - I know I joke about not believing in deodorant, but in reality I do use it quite a lot! I swear! - I have ended up sending the message on, anyway.

Or if I'm in the store and there's a new food offering which looks appealing, but isn't exactly on my grocery list and I don't really need it and look there's something a little cheaper … I cut through all the negative thoughts in my head and plop the thing in my cart. Kerplunk!

Or, if I'm writing a paragraph about my grocery shopping experience and think, "Hmm, I want to put a sound effect at the end of the sentence," rather than shout myself down with thoughts how silly it will look and what grocery item makes a sound like "Kerplunk" anyhow, I just forge ahead bravely and plop that word right in there. Kerplunk!

(And it does look silly. But I also kind of like it.)

Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time being too cautious. After all, the old cliche goes, "Fortune favors the bold." It does not go, "Fortune favors the soul who weighs out every option carefully and then selects the pathway least likely to inflict damage or make waves so he can get home to bed every night safely."

Not that I'm making criminal, dangerous or reckless moves here.

In fact, if faced with a psycho chainsaw juggler clown, my resolution still comes in quite handy. Rather than risk permanent dismemberment and death by standing around wondering if I should actually stay and fight such a monstrosity, I'm not hesitating; I'm running like all get out.

But instead of getting all weighed down by my desire to flow through a mellow life, I'm getting braver, speaking up for myself when necessary and taking steps outside of myself I probably wouldn't have made had I stopped to think about it.

As a result, I'm much happier and well on the way to "Feelin' Fine in 2009."

Kerplunk.