I don’t figure I’ll win a Nobel Prize. I also expect to avoid prison. So, boo-hoo and hooray, I’ll miss the conventional extremes of a life lived well or badly.

I’m OK with that. Living is an experiment with many opportunities to fly or flop, and few of the important opportunities reside at the extremes. They lie, instead, in the daily humdrum.

It’s there, in the minor middle, where I set my answers to this question: Where will I be this time next year?

I’ll be kinder. Kindness is free, like smiles. Sharing it creates still more to ripple and ricochet from me to you and on to others and thence back to us. Kindness is never wasted.

I’ll be more patient. Patience is half-sister to kindness – the absence of unkindness, mixed with acceptance of the inconsequential irritations of the moment. More is better.

Yes, I’ve just copped to flaws, to own them on the way to repair. My new mantra will help, too. It’s an antidote of self-awareness against backsliding: “Kindness and patience. Patience and kindness.” Repeat as necessary.

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Note

Today’s column arose from a challenge from Bill at the “A Silly Place” blog. Bill encouraged me and others to answer the “This Time Next Year” challenge. Thank you, Bill.

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Help from a cat. Sort of