This year, you have an entire week to boil your 2010 resolution down to one word.

In '09, I chose VENTURE. How did I do? Well, if we consider "venture" as a word that indicates to go forth, to travel, I certainly did that. Here's a list of places I went in '09:

St. Petersburg, FL; Guatemala; New York City (multiple times); Boston, Jacksonville, St. Simon's Island GA, Atlanta, Winston-Salem NC, Indianapolis, Fort Lauderdale, Cumberland MD, Pittsburgh,, El Paso, Phoenix, Houston, Charleston, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sydney (Australia), Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, New Orleans (now my second home), London, Harrogate, Paris, Caen and the beaches of Normandy, Scotland, Milwaukee. (Remember this list when you see the tour schedule for I'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE, which is scheduled to be published in August 2010. I'm going to travel considerably less in '10. CAN YOU BLAME ME?)

But did I venture in other, less literal ways? I think so, although one project is still up in the air and won't be resolved until midway through '10, if ever. I wrote a novel, my fifteenth, that required me to do something a little different. I wrote only one short story, unless I've forgotten one. (Always possible.) I did NOT sing in public and I don't think I ever will. In New Orleans, I venture out on my new old bike, an old-fashioned woman's bike with a basket that allows me to run errands. On Christmas Day, zooming along the wonderfully empty streets, thinking about how much more I was enjoying my two-city lifestyle than I thought possible, resolving to be more open-minded about change in the future, I found a $100 bill lying in the street.

I did not, however, venture as far as I should in my reading. I read a lot in '09, possibly more than I usually do because of the Kindle and all those long airplane trips. But my reading remains in its own comfort zone.

So what's the word in '10? For me, it's MAINTAIN. As in:

Maintain my sanity.
Maintain my work habits.
Maintain the weight loss that is now going into its second year. (Keeping weight off for five years is considered statistically rare, so I've a ways to go.)
Maintain my active lifestyle, walking and biking whenever possible.
Maintain my roots.
Maintain my mind. (More Hilary Mantel, less Jersey Shore.)
Maintain my relationships.

I'm sure more will occur to me. But now it's your turn.