New Year Resolutions

Why do we do them?  Every year at this time we are guilted into creating promises to ourselves to fix something or other that we presume we are lacking in.  After a few months....lo and behold we have created yet another opportunity to beat ourselves up and cast our resolutions aside.

What torture will we put ourselves through this year?  Is there an alternative....a better way to start the year?  Yes, I think there is!

I did try it one year...I don't know why I didn't keep it up!  Rather than trying to change things in our lives....how about if we try to create something new?

For example....how about if we create opportunities to add something to our lives rather than eliminating what we perceive as faults?

Addition is always easier than subtraction....don't you agree?

I read an article in O Magazine, by Anne Lamott, entitled Feeling Full.  In this article, Lamott talks about how her parents were "in pursuit of the so-called good life."  In short, they wanted to have the best of everything.  In doing so, they missed the opportunity to enjoy being who they are, because they were too busy pursuing perfection.

I can relate to this, because I thought being perfect....well how could that be a mistake?  The perfect wife, the perfect mother....well....I was in for a huge shock when I realized that perfection wasn't the answer. 

At the end of the article, Lamott boiled it down to this....."All I ever wanted since I arrived here on Earth were the things that turned out to be within reach, the same things I needed as a baby - to go from cold to warm, lonely to held, the vessel to the giver, empty to full.  You can change the world with a hot bath, if you sink into it from a place of knowing that you are worth profound care, even when you're dirty and rattled.  Who knew?"

Whenever I read O Magazine, it's like savoring a wonderful dish.  I can't read it in one sitting.  I have so many issues of Oprah's magazine accumulating in a pile.  I just can't rush through it.  I find huge pearls of wisdom every time I read an article.  It becomes a process of letting it run through every fiber of my being.  Oooooo....can you feel it?

So, what am I going to add to my life for the New Year?  I want to SAVOR my life...just as it is.....  I want to relish every morsel.  That's my resolution for this New Year!  I want to enjoy it all....the good with the bad.  I don't want to hide the bad under a rug, or try to be nice and not hurt anyone's feelings by enjoying whatever good comes my way.  I want to find the silver lining, catch the golden ring, fall flat on my face in the mud and be able to laugh about it....Does that make sense?  Weirdly enough....it does to me! 

Happy New Year to you all!