I have been doing this a long time, making summer goals. And it struck me, looking back at some of these lists the other day, that over the past couple of years I have been less successful at actually completing most - or even many - of them. Which is ok! The idea was always inspiration, not domination.

Then it struck me (and please bear with me, because this sounds like resignation) that I’m not sure I’m up for bold, one-off goals. At least not this year.

Not that I don’t want the excitement - the experiences you can book and purchase and see - but that, when I think about how I want to spend my days lately, it’s all about sinking into the things I have to - and really want to - do anyway. Sinking right in. Getting comfortable in unknown spaces.

To (and I can’t even believe I’m saying this) sit down on the coach with my notebook and computer and assess the best driver’s education course package and dates for Nora. Then, to call up the stairs to her, where she’s playing guitar with the door closed. To call unrelentingly (“NORA! NORRRRRRRRRRRRA”) until she opens the door, steps just outside, remaining close to her guitar, to the artistic confines of her bedroom, and says, “What?” Quietly, annoyed. Which, truth be told, I can hear, but I act like I can’t, because I want her down here with me so I can speak to her about the practical necessities of life in a normal volume, with eye contact. And while I admit there is nothing so offensive to the teenage spirit than a mom-on-a-mission repeatedly calling your name, demanding your presence for something so incredibly pedestrian, there is no battle so enticing to a parent of said teenager as getting your child to: come right here where I can see you. So I start in on her name again. I call until she stomps down the stairs and repeats, “WHAT.”

And I deliver the totally-worth-it-to-her reward. I have summoned you because I want to know how a Tuesday 7 to 9:30 pm Zoom class on driver’s safety sounds to you, I say. I have summoned you because we are taking on the world!

Here’s the truth: you can be ambitious right here and now, in the everyday necessities.

This is where I am. Notebook, computer, harassing the people I love into what I like to call, “kicking it into high gear.” To my delight, Nora asked me the other day if we could, “um, kick it into high gear” and buy some items she needed to buy for summer camp, and added (omg!) that she’d like to kick her college essay draft “into high gear” this summer. She gets it, despite the reluctance to come down the stairs sometimes. The joy of purpose-driven task completion.

That - rather than wanting to see a particular sight or plan a particular event - is it. Thinking less about the high-octane things I would like to do and more about how I would like to be.

Sinking in to higher level aims, too. Aims that harness creativity, or at least make it more accessible. I noticed that one thing I did do last summer was learn how to send a proper newsletter directly from this website to subscribers. It took some time, and my facing things that make me uncomfortable, like watching “marketing” tutorials on my hosting site, but the result was worth it, and so much more efficient than the copy-and-paste email method I’d been using for years.

I keep thinking about growth, but the kind of growth that makes you more yourself. More the person you’ve always been. Does that make sense?

On this note, I decided to pick a few noteworthy goals from summers past that I really liked but never got around to and added them to the list. And despite this all this high-minded purposefulness - or whatever one might call the preceding paragraphs, good grief! - I think a summer goals list should be first and foremost, fun. Also, while this season is great for “bucket-list” items, I am up for “you know it when you see it” goals, too.

I’ve already started up on a few of these, including my attempts at something that doesn’t sound fun, exactly, but I firmly believe will lead to much more of it: “no texting while walking.” Which, it turns out, I do all the time and, along with so many other aspects of my phone, find totally unpleasant. Not only physically uncomfortable, but mentally, because it is based on this (incorrect) assumption that I’ve got to be using nearly every spare moment to communicate crucial-seeming information. It’s part of this silly, modern take that distraction is worthiness. I’d like to try something different.

A challenging goal for this easygoing season, I think. But then I think again. Because it’s challenging at first. And then, like so often happens when you attempt, and adapt to, something new, life is so much easier.

Summer goals 2025:

Show the family around my old stomping grounds in Boston
Always bring a book
Get comfortable on the tennis court
Reinvestigate Italian citizenship
Run to the “All are welcome: area for rest and prayer” sign on the Farmington Canal Trail; rest (2024 goal)
Finish Ulysses
Swim whenever there is an opportunity
Pliability!
Buy summer dresses (this goal brought to you by Aidy)
Get a good summer breakfast (…and this one)
Fill the back patio with lots of flowers (2022 goal)
No texting while walking (whenever possible, which is nearly always)
Host a garage bar open mic night (2024 goal)
Explore new ways to share and utlize my writing
Do the New Haven Road Race (20K)
Reread some Steinbeck
Buy a bicycle
Try a new-to-us local restaurant
Explore wallpaper possibilities
Spend time with the houseplants
Stargaze
Look into auditing a class, and/or other educational opportunities
Make some plans with my brother
Happy hour(s)
Just go for it