Body To raise money for their mission trip, the St. James Youth Group is smelling cookbooks.

Body Do you make a list of resolutions for the new year? What if you made resolutions for the next five years? Sound daunting? Take a moment to think about the year 2029. How old will you be? If you have kids, how old will they be?

Body People occasionally will ask about my upbringing, family life and Appalachia roots. So, here is my song that I wrote and recorded titled Coal Miner’s Son. Maybe you can relate to some parts of the following lyrics.

Body With the dawning of a new year comes a deluge of resolutions, reminders, and exhortations. They all follow similar how-to themes— how to increase your efficiency, how to make every moment count, how to invest your time wisely and productively.

Body As you think about the new year of 2024, what’s your mindset? Many people are worried. Global warming, the presidential election, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Body No doubt life is always changing. If you don’t like the weather it will change, eventually. It’s been hot most all over but cooler weather will come. In most of the country, cooler weather will be welcomed sooner rather than later.

Body You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it.

Body Jim Priest is CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma and can be reached at jpriest@okgoodwill.org. Not everyone celebrates New Years on January 1.

Body Grandma lay in the hospital bed, a shadow of the vital, energetic woman she had been just a year ago. Her strong hands that were endlessly involved in her family’s life, providing, comforting, and disciplining, now lay listlessly on the bed cover, thin and fragile.

Body Recently, two of my cousins came to see us and we really enjoyed the visit. Eddie Abernathy and sister Bonnie are both graduates of HHS and although they have been gone for many years, they still have many friends and relatives in Holdenville.