Does anyone make New Year’s resolutions these days? Or is it just the olders who have gotten wiser, let those magnificent opportunities for failure go? (Maybe we are the only generation who ever did.) Some are really good—drink more water, stop scrolling social media, get more exercise—but who needs the pressure of “resolve”? Some of us have changed to softer “intentions,” providing an awareness of needs or wants, resolutions with no-guilt permission to blow it off. Others have a word for the year. I’ve had a few of those.

To be sure, if you do any of those (resolutions, intentions, word for the year), and it works to keep you motivated, yay you!

For the past several years, though, I have engaged in a more meditative practice: Tarot. My good friend Joanna Powell Colbert, created a deck that feeds my soul. Each year on the winter solstice, I draw five cards and see what they have to say to me about the year past. Or, more accurately, what I have to say for myself inspired by the cards. A question is offered for each card, but sometimes I just listen for them to speak to me. On New Year’s Day, I do a seven-card spread with questions to ponder about the new year. 



As is pretty much always the case, this season’s practices blew me away with the resonance with my life and the insight they inspired.

The solstice practice led me from acknowledging my contentment with relative solitude, to inviting me to ask what I need now and what is keeping me from it, and on to what might I have to let go of to reach a new thing? Because, of course, we can’t live all the lives. 



The new year spread led to this: Be ready. 

Call it a resolution. Call it an intention. Call it a word for the year. Call it inspiration. (Call it a kick in the butt.)



I’m not an astrology practitioner, but I do know Geminis are curious, and they love variety. They also struggle with indecisiveness. So me! I’m also a nine on the Enneagram: the Peacemaker. Sounds good, right? It’s a whole lot like Gemini: receptive, and also complacent. Everything sounds like a good plan. “You decide.” But when you are a solo, there is no “you.”



Like many of us in the third act of life, I’ve been thinking for a good time about where I want to be as I advance toward the inevitable years of changing health and function. Aging at home”—if that means the house I currently live in—is not an option. I’m not sorry. I’ve moved my home eleven times since I migrated across the country in 1976, returning in 2012. I’m good with change. But what? where? when? I’m ready to move to the next adventure. I want to stay near my hiking trails, and sunrises from my home. I’m restless. I’m stuck. Gemini /Peacemaker. 



The cards have offered me the task for this year: Be ready. 



I don’t have make a decision on what, where, or when. (Back off, Gemini/Peacemaker.) Be ready gives me the opportunity to make a list and check off items. (I like that.) Return to cleaning out the house of my parents’ belongings and my own. Complete end-of-life business. Get the house appraised and inspected, property lines confirmed. Get someone to look at the septic tank status, instead of just worrying about it. Pick up again pondering where I want to go and allow myself to dream without the “I can’ts” I tend to put on fantasies. I’ve got this.

Also, buy an orange toaster because color makes me happy. Goodness knows, we could all use some happy right now.


“We don’t have to have it all figured out or know exactly where we’re going. We just need to trust in the journey and stay open to the surprises along the way.” —Barbara Brown Taylor

✅  ✅  ✅

I  would love to hear from you! Do you set goals for the new year? What are your longings? What holds you back? What urges you forward? Leave a comment below.

✅  ✅  ✅

The Gaian Tarot Three of Earth card, the one I think of as the community card, and which inspired the name I gave my family home (and Airbnb) several years ago—Three of Earth Farm—was drawn on the Solstice as my “companion card for the year ahead.” And in the new year spread as “hidden concern.” Gemini. Peacemaker. The internal battle continues, but I recognize the need for connections in these times. I wonder, what longings call to you?

Meet the creator, Joanna Powell Colbert, at JoannaPowellColbert.com. 

A note about commenting on a post: Click the subscribe drop down arrow just above the comment section and provide your information (it’s private) to receive an email when someone replies to your comment. I, at least, will always reply!