As discussed here, last year’s resolution (Margin) was both one I wanted the result of doing, but it was fun in the doing as well. With this year’s, I really want the result; it is needed, but the doing of it will require more of a cajoling of myself to bring to pass. The one word that sums up the intention to be encouraged in coming year is: tech.

Why tech do you say? To not get behind the times, like why I started this blog 15 years ago to not to feel like a troglodyte. This year, I intend to embrace once more a leap forward in techie progress.

I need a new laptop, which will mean having to learn a new photo editing program. I have been using Aperture, which I love, but to keep using it these seven years since it is no longer available, has meant that I haven’t been able to upgrade my operating system, and it is no longer compatible with anything, even my iPhone10. It still works fine if you didn’t need to connect it with anything, so my husband will inherit my old one once I’ve made the transition.

My good camera has been broken for a couple years and I need a new one to take raw photos for my image licensing site; I’ve been borrowing our younger daughter’s for that and she’s been overly patient but wants it back. Many people tell me I need to upgrade my phone too to improve all the photos I take for this blog. If I had an Ipad, I’d learn Procreate and do art on there, which wouldn’t necessitate buying so many materials, but is an unlikely purchase, since it is the furthest from a need. (Similarly, I have yet to join the e-reader crowd, but do not plan to.)

Then there are website issues. My PollyCastorArt.com site is due for an overhaul, and my SoulfulArtImageLicensing.com site needs its bugs fixed and then to be marketed vigilantly to its intended audience.

All this will require money, time, and learning too– all to supposedly make some money to free us up a bit financially.

I plan also to wrap my head around starting a new pastel society, start a belated account on Linked in, start putting up “stories” regularly on Instagram, and start a podcast many of you have been encouraging me to do, called Ideas of Soul, where I repurpose poems and blog essays for a listening audience.

And lastly, for those of you wanting books out of me (yes I hear you! You usually ask for a book of poetry, a cookbook, or a how-to abstract art book, or even a memoir), maybe I should start thinking about how to do that?

Somehow all this needs to happen while still devoting myself to clients in my full time practice as a spiritual healer, while still creating and selling artwork, still giving workshops, still blogging everyday with fresh content, and still having time for hiking, traveling, reading, cooking, and family.

Having all this tech in place should make it easier to do all that successfully, but getting there is the trick. And to do so without losing that glorious margin that I just worked into my life this past year!

Here’s to finding a way to embrace tech (instead of avoiding it) and bringing my use of it up to speed in 2023.