I’ve always been an anti-New Year’s resolution type of person.  The whole routine usually seems kind of pointless since most people seem to make resolutions and accept that they’ll only keep them for a few weeks.

But this year I’ve got a new perspective. I’m making two resolutions because I had to go to a funeral a few days before Christmas. My grandmother passed away. Technically, she was my step-grandmother, but she never treated me like a step-grandchild and, in the twenty-four years I knew her, I always felt like a very loved grandchild. Thinking about her life and how she lived led to my two resolutions:  to do a better job of keeping in touch with the people I love and to hug the people I love mroe. My grandmother hugged with a vengeance!

I intend to keep my resolutions for more than a few weeks.

And that dovetails into a wonderful winter-themed book—Winter of Discontent by Jeanne M. Dams. It is an intricate mystery layered with the theme of aging. Dorothy, the retired schoolteacher whose move to an English village lands her in the middle of murder investigations, examines her own fears of aging and the questions we must struggle with as we reach the winter of our lives. Excellent read!