Emily in France 🇫🇷 Happy New Year!

I'm very careful about resolutions.

Look, I'm an enneagram type 1: I love resolutions, because they're basically just rules for self-improvement. Love rules. Love self-improvement.

But I'm also very careful about how I phrase my resolutions.

This time of year, so many people resolve to do something that isn't entirely within their control: things like lose 15 pounds or get married or save enough money to buy a house. It's easy for something to go awry – no matter how hard you try – and for those resolutions to be fruitless. So, much like a witch casting a spell or someone talking to a fairy, I pick my words carefully, choosing resolutions that I know I can make good on. Instead of "land a commission in the New York Times," I might resolve to "pitch the New York Times 10 times." Instead of "lose weight," I might resolve to "eat plant-based at home and only eat out once a week."

(Neither of those are on my resolutions list this year.)

I have a tradition, every year, of making one resolution and choosing one word. The resolution is something I plan to do; the word is a theme I'd like to govern my life for the rest of the year. And I'm going to share them with you.

The past decade has been all about the hustle, for me, occasionally working sixteen-hour days to prove myself. But I've got more work than I know what to do with. I don't need to prove myself anymore. Instead, I want to work on the projects that matter to me. I want to be brave enough to say no. (And I want to abandon the practice of starting a new project at 11pm and whining to all of my friends about my own poor time management skills.)

This year, I'm going to work smarter.

As for the word?

I have a very strong gut instinct about most things, but I second-guess myself constantly. This year, my word is intuition. I resolve to try to trust mine: to examine what it's telling me and see why I'm constantly at odds for myself.

Oh, and I also resolve to keep you all in the loop about fun Paris happenings and whatnot.

Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020!

Where I'm Eating

Dersou offers Japanese-accented contemporary cuisine in a tasting menu, where each dish is paired with a craft cocktail. As always, you can find my ever-evolving list of my favorite Parisian restaurants here.
 

Where I'm Going

1. Long Island.
2. NYC.
3. Princeton.

What I'm Reading

Believe it or not, I've taken a tiny break for the holidays (and to work on my novel), so I don't have much new writing to share with you. I have, however, been reading quite a bit. Here are some of my recent faves.

1. This story about the women who make and sell orecchiette (illegally?) in Bari for the New York Times.

2. This story about what the loss of landlines is doing to the American family unit in the Atlantic.

3. This funny roundup of things not to say to a writer by Jayne Martin.

4. This experience of sleeping in an igloo in Scandinavia for My Modern Met.

5. This exploration of the practice of tsundoku – the practice of buying more books than you can read – for TreeHugger. (See, family? I'm not the only one!)

What I'm Reading

This unique exploration of gender, identity, love, and language has made me an Ali Smith convert. Read my full review on the blog.

A bientôt !
Emily in France