Tiny Beautiful Resolutions

On the first page of my new planner of 2024, it asked "What's your word for this year?"

Now we'll come back to what word I picked in a second, but as I started thinking about what word would best encapsulate my intentions for 2024, I thought about the first episode of Tiny Beautiful Things on Hulu, and one part came to mind. For reference, Tiny Beautiful Things is a book by Cheryl Strayed that follows Clare (Kathryn Hahn) a floundering writer who becomes a revered advice columnist while her own life is falling apart. At the end of the first episode, Clare is writing her first response to a young girl that had written in and she says:

"A little girl will get on the bus holding the strings of two purple balloons. She’ll offer you one of the balloons, but you won’t take it because you believe you no longer have a right to such tiny beautiful things. You’re wrong. You do.”

And god, did I start crying. When did I start looking at life that way? What things do I need to change to believe that I do have the right. So, as I look at resolutions and the year of 2024, I want to keep my resolutions small and tiny, because this year my word is: Grace. Giving myself grace when I have that extra glass of wine or I didn't get a workout in that day. Giving myself grace when I talk bad about my body or the small cluster of acne on my cheek. And most of all giving myself grace when it comes to writing, good lord, I'm such a perfectionist when I come on here to write. I have 6 or 7 drafts that I've started, loved, got so enveloped in, and then said, " No one is going to read this." Why does it matter if anyone does? Put it out there for you and you never know who it might attract. So, resolutions are going to rest in this place and then I'm going to post it, because maybe, someone else might need to hear that they, too, deserve tiny beautiful things as well:

Clean and Clear

Starting 2024 in a new apartment and a new city, I knew I wanted one small thing to start happening: keep my space clean.

Both my boyfriend and I work from home, so my office can sometimes be the couch, my bed, or my newly built desk. I've realized over the years that I'm a stress cleaner, I won't clean it right after I'm done, but I'll have a day where I go HAM cleaning, because it's now a big mess everywhere. It's also why my to-do lists can be abnormally long. Trying to do small tasks in the moment like wiping down the counters after cooking, making the bed in the morning, or a task as small as hanging my towel up after I shower (I'm really good at leaving it on the floor). In the same way I feel better when I have a clean space, I feel so much better when I write things out.

Clean and clear space, clean and clear mind. Writing on Vocal can be my stress reliever. Just getting all the thoughts out, keep 'em as a draft, or heaven forbid, just start posting it as it comes into my brain. Tiny beautiful resolution number 1.

Music, Music, Music

You ever gone for a drive when an album comes out and dissect the whole thing with a friend? In college, one of my best friends and I would do it once or four times a week. We'd find a new album that we hadn't heard or had just been released and drive so far out of the way to listen to it at least twice. Granted this was the same friend that wanted to get a smoothie and we'd end up driving from The Valley to Santa Monica for it - haha, happens.

I want to start dissecting music again. It always made me feel so connected and seen, but this time with a twist. I'd love to go through every song on an album, and write about it. I went to school as an opera singer, then got my degree in Music Business, but there was always a small part of me that wanted to be a music journalist, and if finding tiny beautiful things is the goal, why not go for that small part of you that wanted something when you were younger. Adding grace into the mix, I'm going to ask people to send me albums, artists, and singers that they've love. I'm really bad at asking for help, and even worse when someone offers it. If 2024 is about grace, then why not get better at things you're bad at if they're good for you in the long run. Things that make you uncomfortable and get you outside your comfort zone.

Back to Me

I started making a list of solo dates last year, and now that I can walk just about everywhere - it's time to take advantage of it. So, I'll start a series of solo dates that I recommend... or don't, we'll see. Don't get me wrong, I've been in a relationship with my boyfriend for 4 years and we live together, and work in the same apartment, and we're both fairly broke, so we don't leave too often... You see why solo dates will be a thing in 2024. I also want to implement this going forward:

Finding yourself is a lifelong commitment and something you probably have to do over and over again. Be by yourself, get out and do something you can't always control, learn to say no more often. Sometimes starting small can only lead you to thinking bigger. I want to write and rank these solo outings because I've told a couple friends that I started doing it and they were baffled.

"Don't you get stared at?" "Don't you get bored?" "I don't have the courage to go by myself."

It's weird at first, but after you get back home, boy, do you feel great. Bring your computer, a book, hell, two books. Try it once a month, you'll be amazed at the difference it makes. Who knows? Maybe by writing about it, I'll find out even more about myself... maybe you will too.

Personally, I think BIG resolutions aren't sustainable, but if you have the right mindset small things can be accomplished. I think even the days where you aren't doing anything are some of the most important ones. Half your days being constructive, getting things done and the other half making lists, dreaming and resting.

Embrace the tiny beautiful things, because you deserve them, even if you don't think you do. I'll leave you with this:

"The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not.

These things are your becoming."

- Cheryl Strayed

Hi there!

If you have any questions, comments, or if you have any album/song recommendations, DM me @kcor34 on Instagram or comment down below. I'll try to respond as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading, and until next time. :)