A few years ago I began a New Years Resolution Plan called Rosebud. I heard about it on one of the travel podcasts that I follow. The process essentially looks like this:
Step 1: List Three Roses-
This is the stuff that I would consider the greatest strengths, successes or accomplishments of the past year, the stuff that has managed to blossom into a Rose.
Step 2: List One Thorn
This would reflect my greatest personal struggle of the past year.
Step 3: List Three Buds
Based on my “thorn”, this is a list of what I would like to “bud” into potential Roses in the coming year.
Step 4: Come up with a word for the year
This should be a single word that can help reflect the direction I want to head in the coming year, a single word that can give my year a theme or a recognizable focus and narrative.
So, why Rosebud?
I have been asked in the past, why three Roses but only one Thorn? Most of us don’t realize it, but it is often much more diffciult to come up with roses than it is thorns. Also difficult is learning how to speak about thorns in a way that imagines forward movement, seeing it in light of one’s potential for growth. It’s kind of like that old piece of advice that says when you are in an interview for a new job and they ask you about your weaknesses, always give a weakness that you can do something about.
The great part of the Rosebud system is that it allows one to document their struggles and their growth year by year as a kind of working and interactive diary. You can build on the previous year and form an ongoing narrative out of the successes, struggles and hopes. This is not about resolutions persay, at least not in the traditional sense, it is about making space for introspection and observation and forming that into perspective and potential. And it allows one to not just make goals, but to examine what those goals are actual about, the why of our goals.
With that in mind…
A look back at ROSEBUD 2022:
My Three Roses were:
1. Research Project/Book
2. The Fear of God
3. Buddy
My Thorn was:
Avoidance
My Buds:
1. Reinvest in relationships at home
2. Take my record breaking year in film and books and funnel that time into greater investments
3. Make progress on my book
My Word For the Year: Process
One of the things that I noted in my Roses was potential. New potential when it came to writing and new potential when it came to the biggest change in our lives- welcoming Buddy into our home. When I consider how the Buds were meant to sort of supplement and build on my Roses, I have to confess that this was not my best year. I failed to make progress on my book, and perhaps at this point consider it a regression, and in the latter half of the year the onset of depression and some other barriers relating to life led me to neglect doing much writing at all, both for the Fear of God and on my personal page. The further downside of this is that I don’t feel like I was able to reinvest the time that I did have from dialing back on some of reading and watching the previous year well.
Rosebud 2023
Three Roses:
1. Buddy
While the rest of my 2022 year seemed to fall off the wagon as things went along, Buddy was there to ensure that something remained on track. He arrived with more than a few challenges, and many of those remain. Those who know me well know that a dog is never just a dog, and so ensuring that the Budster has a safe and loving home where he can figure some of this stuff out in grace and with family is hugely important for me. I do feel like I had the necessary grace, patience and time to give. I feel like some of this too has provided good opportunity for dialogue with Sasha as well as he has been able to observe and participate in the process
2. Conversations
I feel like 2022 has been marked by key conversations which have represented important transition points in my life. This includes family, work, friends, and Church. Without fleshing out the context, suffice to say while these conversations didn’t always go well or continue the way they needed, I feel like starting points are always positive.
3, Reprioritize
Related to those conversations, I do feel like there were small ways in which I was able to reprioritze some key facets of my life. I feel like I’m positioned well towards certain potentials in that regard at the very least. It just needs a greater imagination.
One Thorn: Failed Potential
I feel like this is the logical weakness to list here even if it stretches the unspoken rule of this slot by spreading things too broadly. Given my Roses and my reflections on last year this seems like an important foundation to build on in 2023
Three Buds:
1. Get back on the horse
Let’s keep this simple- get back to writing, get back to reimaging how to utilize some of my reallocated time
2. Establish further community
If conversations have been started, and if this relates to key points of transition, perhaps the logical step is to allow this to formulate into some important investments in community (relationships). What this means exactly seems less clear, but it is something to at least table and begin to flesh out
3. England
This will seem somewhat superficial, but this is meant to build on one failed potential from 2022. It has been a good long while since we have done a more extensive trip, and having landed earlier this year on planning to try and ultimately failing to make it to England, a place which holds perhaps the most bucket list items for me personally, being more intentional this year might help bear that out and make it a reality
My Word For The Year: Imagination
The Stories of my Life 