with

Mike Bellah

One afternoon in July I drove up the Pecos river valley to Cowles, New Mexico, where I spent a number of summers camping as a Boy Scout. 

I'm glad I made the list.  I do have a sense of accomplishment for tasks completed, and, even now, I find myself thinking of ways to complete some of my unfinished goals.  

I'm struck with the fact that my most cherished accomplishment in 1999 was not even on my list.  What I'm most thankful for at the beginning of this millennium is my new job teaching English at Amarillo College. 

I reviewed my list this week, and, of my 26 resolutions, I wrote "no" (clearly unfulfilled) beside 14 (that's 54 percent) of them.  I did not write more letters to family and friends, did not study a historic period or visit a geographic region with which I was unfamiliar, did not clean the attic or keep my office more tidy (are you surprised?), and did not write more consistently in my journal. 

On the other hand, I did keep eight (31 percent) of my resolutions.  For instance, I did make contact (mostly through email) with old friends with whom I had lost touch, all of them summer camp counselors with me during the late '60s at Hidden Falls Ranch.  Gary Speckman now works for Athletes in Action in Sidney, Australia.  Kinne Callaway--we were both wranglers at HFR--is a Baptist pastor in Colorado Springs, and Lee Baughman is a professional artist in Vancouver, Washington.

In addition, I did get outdoors at least one hour each day.  I did clean my closet (honest), and I did take advantage more of the special places close to home.  Mostly, that meant my wife and I enjoyed frequent and spontaneous outings at her family ranch on the Palo Duro.  With all the spring rains, I've never seen the canyon prettier.  We spent more than one evening sitting around a mesquite campfire with friends, roasting marshmallows, and watching a beautiful Panhandle sunset.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Four of my resolutions (15 percent of them) I marked neither "yes" nor "no," but "sort of."  I sort of read some old books that had been on my list for a long time.  Actually, I got through just two of them: "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo and "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoyevsky.  I sort of picked up some additional computer skills--no formal classes but one does learn by doing.  And I sort of visited a place from my past that I hadn't seen in a while.  One afternoon in July I drove up the Pecos river valley to Cowles, New Mexico, where I spent a number of summers camping as a Boy Scout.  I was on another trip so I couldn't linger, but the Pecos was just as beautiful as I remembered it.

Looking back at my resolutions, both those I kept and those I didn't, and looking ahead to the new year, I have a couple of thoughts.  One, I'm glad I made the list.  I do have a sense of accomplishment for tasks completed, and, even now, I find myself thinking of ways to complete some of my unfinished goals.  

Two, I'm struck with the fact that my most cherished accomplishment in 1999 was not even on my list.  What I'm most thankful for at the beginning of this millennium is my new job teaching English at Amarillo College.  This position, that I'm growing to love more each day, has reminded me that some of life's best gifts are serendipities, blessings mostly unsought and unexpected.