Making New Year’s resolutions is a ritual for some and for others something never considered.
Nonetheless, studies on human behaviour suggest that writing down one’s goals will help to improve the chance of success with those goals.
With that in mind, and an accident of having a Christmas tree that didn’t get used for Christmas, the idea of re-purposing the unwanted tree was born.
We had purchased a terrific Cub Scout tree from the Co-Op for our cabin in Tofino before Christmas but couldn’t be back here until after the 25th.
We thought of decorating it anyway, but instead came up with the idea of creating a tree where people could write and hang their resolutions for the New Year.
So we bought some small cards, colourful pipe cleaners to attach the cards to the tree, minimally decorated the tree and put out a sign encouraging resolutions.
We put up the tree at the South Chesterman Beach parking next to the beach entrance.
The tree was a hit!
Within a few minutes it began filling up. Many wrote but others stopped to read the
resolutions. We put it up on the afternoon of December 31st and by the next morning it was entirely covered with 130 cards.
One could hardly see the tree. The resolutions mostly addressed being thankful for what one has, the appreciation of family and surroundings and improving health.
Apparently, someone is going to “build a hotel in Chile next year” and surprisingly there was only one person who wanted “to become a billionaire”.
World domination was thankfully left out.
However, judging by the vast majority of writers, the world will become a better place with their help in 2015.
We look forward to supplying Resolution Tree 2.0 in another 12 months.
Steve and Marcie Crowley have had a small home in Tofino for about 12 years and spend as much spare time on the West Coast as is possible. They have lived in Lantzville for 21 years.
