Looking to 2021

With each new year come new opportunities. Likewise, new challenges arise. Some of these we cannot anticipate, of course; but others, we set for ourselves, to expand our capacities and extend our visions.

I have many ideas for personal development and accomplishment in the year ahead. At the risk of future embarrassment at my presumption, here are some of them.

  • As a newly appointed member of the Rappahannock-Rapidan Community Services Board, I want to fully comprehend the range of services it offers the community and to carve out a meaningful role for myself in contributing to it. I see an opportunity to use my position to enhance public information about the agency’s services and educate citizens and public officials about the value of social investments such as these.
  • I want to expand my mind by studying things that are new to me, especially Greek philosophy and the philosophy of the Roman Stoics.
  • I want to develop a portfolio of photos for sharing on the web and with potential purchasers and exhibitors.
  • I want to create a sequence of macro photos that are interpretive of deeper themes and go beyond being merely documentary.
  • I want to use my photos to create a line of note cards I can offer for sale.
  • I want to enhance my photographic post-processing skills.
  • I want to develop my skills at creating artistic images as a part of my portfolio.
  • I want to publish a coffee table book on the rural fences in the horse country where I live.
  • I want to continue writing monthly reviews of woodworking books.
  • I want to teach two new hands-on woodworking classes.
  • I want to make natural edge coffee tables for gifts and for sale.
  • I want to continue making boxes for gifts and for sale.
  • I want to complete some other woodworking projects, including a book rack and a desk.
  • I want to provide ongoing leadership to my local photographic club, the Shenandoah Photographic Society.
  • I want to learn the basics of playing the uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes), whose sound I’ve come to love. I want to first learn to master the manipulation of the bags and the key strokes on the chanter and by the end of the year to be able to play a simple tune or two.
  • I want to visit family members.
  • I want to do something some training in photography, Covid permitting.

I know this is a lot to endeavor. And perhaps it’s more that I can achieve in 12 months. But if goals are not challenging, what is the use of having them?

Published by Norman Reid

I worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 27 years in the field of rural community and economic development. I retired a few years ago and have been devoting my time to photography and writing. I've been a semi-pro photographer for more than 25 years and sell my work on the Web. I live in rural Virginia not far from the Shenandoah Valley.

4 thoughts on “Looking to 2021

    1. I read a lot by Ryan Holiday and am currently reading his latest, The Lives of the Stoics, which is pretty interesting. My favorites, though, are Marcus Aurelius and Seneca.

      1. I am halfway through Meditations myself, and it really interests me how schools of thought from thousands of years ago still ring so true today.

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