SUGGESTIONS for 2026

/ janpriddyoregon

It’s New Years Day, the day we make promises to ourselves about how to have a good or better year. But I’m not making promises, only suggestions for myself. Here’s the short version:

  • dress crazier
  • watch what I eat
  • vacation even if it’s just for the day
  • walk long and run short distances, no hurry
  • write and create objects to please myself
  • try
This sunset was photographed by most everyone we know. It changed and got brighter, more magenta than orange.

In 2025: I went through dramatic changes with my novel, the most notable of which was sending back the advance, cutting it to 60k words, and recognizing that if it’s going to be published I will do that myself. We stopped drinking altogether in October as a result of observation of a friend’s disastrous decline. I injured my foot in May and recovered enough by November to run.

Gary and I quit drinking in October. He was having a beer or three each day, and I averaged a glass of wine. Then our tenant totaled his car and left his home in filth to go into assisted living—that was September and we’re still repairing the damage caused by incontinence, smoking and drinking, and neglect. We were surprised by how easy we found our choice to quit drinking, we don’t miss the alcohol or the hangovers, and we’ve noticed we’re saving more than a hundred dollars each month, which is particularly welcome.

The national news was mostly awful, but we are well.

One more personal suggestion for this coming year… I was once an eight-hours-sleep-a-night person. When I was still a child in the early 1960s, an article about sleep made me determined to get my eight hours of sleep each night, and I maintained that excellent habit all through college and parenting and teaching Art and English and writing. But in the 2000s, I found teaching while caring for my mother did not leave me much “free” time to write, so I deliberately cut an hour from my sleep schedule. Seven hours allowed me to write novels and complete an MFA, but I’m now down to an unhealthy six hours of sleep and I’m missing those other two hours.

I really want that sleep back, and I will be taking steps.

I’ll probably read at least 50 books in 2026 and worry too much. We’ll pick up litter on the beach, hopefully find someone to rent our rental, and visit family and friends. I’ll bake and cook and make stuff. Gary will do kindnesses, remember, listen to music, and garden. No promises, but we’ll try not to do anything stupid while staring into the face of fascism and maintaining some level of optimism because we are hopeful people.

May it be enough.

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9 thoughts on “SUGGESTIONS for 2026”

  4. We stopped drinking early last year. We had a habit of splitting a bottle of wine with dinner, but stopped when I got a cold and didn’t want to eat or mix wine with my meds. But … eventually we snuck back into our old habit. My husband says the wine eases his back pain better than any other medication he takes. So there we are. And while it’s a habit, it’s one that builds in time for us to sit and talk and cuddle with the cats and mark the end of the day. Sure we don’t need wine to do all that, but I also appreciate the sedative effect.

    At least if we died suddenly, no one would come into our house and think we lived poor lifestyles.

    Happy New Year, Jan. Suggestions are definitely a nicer way to bring in the new year.

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    • We didn’t neglect ourselves all these years while we were drinking, either. Most of our friends drink and are entirely responsible people.

      However, our tenant was blind drunk every night and driving. Gary worried for almost two years that he would either die in his apartment or kill someone while driving drunk. We checked in on him regularly. His life felt like a sign.

      It’s ridiculous, but I believe in considering that sort of sign. A neighbor ran his car off the road and caused a horrific accident. He wasn’t drinking, but he was 80. A woman drove her car into mine when my sons were little; she was 80 too. My mother, at 80 was granted a driver’s license renewal. The only reason either of us could sleep at night was that I realized she wasn’t strong enough to drive her manual car. It’s a reason I vowed to stop driving when I was no longer steady, I once thought by age 80. But we’ll see where we are at age 80.

      Gary insists he doesn’t miss the beer one bit, but it never really eased his pain. I do miss the wine somewhat, but the savings in money outweighs that, especially since we use the rental to ensure we can afford our property taxes.

      If we die suddenly… well, that’s why we need to update our will.

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      • I don’t remember how old my mom was when she “stopped” driving, probably early 90s. She was a safe driver, but one time she got pulled over because she was driving on the shoulder of the road. Now, it was a very wide shoulder, but still. She’d been driving that road for decades. Still, we couldn’t convince her that she needed to give up her keys. Then one day the car wouldn’t start. The mechanic said it would cost $1000 to fix or he could take off her hands for $1000. Naturally she took the money 😉

        Oddly enough, I feel like I’m a better driver now than I was a couple of decades ago. It’s the other drivers around me that I worry about 😉

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      • Ha! That’s a great solution. A friend convinced her mother to give her car to a grandchild so they could get to work.

        After we got Mom off the road, our sons told us stories about how she’d scared them—merging onto the highway without even checking for oncoming cars, stuff like that. They admitted they’d been terrified to ride with her driving. I wish I’d known. Am I better driver? I hardly ever drive, but my husband is the soul of caution, and I help by spotting for him. 😉

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