One time I read an article in a magazine, where someone talked about the joy of finding money left in her jeans. It was an actual magazine too. The tactile pleasure of holding and leafing through I’ve been missing these days. I thought about making a list of old pleasures and simple joys, and asked a few of my friends to add to it.

HERE IT GOES…

The last time I felt invincible, I came from doing fifty laps in the pool to prepare for a swim match. I remember beating my coach’s stopwatch. Thirty minutes later, I sat in my bedroom, smelling like chlorine, my hair sopping wet, my shoulders hot like coals. A current of endorphins sweeping through my body. I felt like I could do anything. That was twenty years ago. Time passed. I stopped swimming. I stopped dancing. I stopped doing and feeling a lot of things. I just, stopped.

This year will be no more in a few days, and once again I’m looking inward and forward. No matter how crazy the final weeks of the year get, it’s vital to make sense of everything, to make lists in your head or on paper. To visualize, to plan, and to hope. Always to hope.

These are twelve big resolutions that I think might be meaningful whatever those hopes are. I’ve chosen a photo (11 great ones from the web and one of mine. Photo above by Florian Klauer) for each resolution, coupled with some wise words from people you might know. Are you ready?

There are some of you out there like me, for whom sleep is a complicated thing. There are two moments that are vital: late at night right before bed, and first thing in the morning when I awake. Night and day are defined by the peace of these moments. And there are a number of things that can disturb it—a looming deadline, an illness in the family, a massive case of self-doubt…or anything wrong in the world that I’ve come to worry about. Things, and the thoughts of things become intrusive, sometimes relentless in the worst of days. But I think I’ve found a hack for it.

Sorry this is a few days late, but we had a typhoon to contend with. I’ve been meaning to write about a recent, and very deliberate trip we took as a family. My uncle passed away a few weeks ago and we were all heartbroken, tired and searching for some kind of healing. We’re still all of that and will be for a long time.

We drove up to Baguio very early last weekend and I had been dreaming of this trip for weeks. I left my laptop and blackberry charger after half-heartedly charging my phone, hoping it would die midway and I could be truly off the grid.