New Year

Well, I missed a month- oh, no! The tides will not stop turning and the sun will continue to rise and set, and of course, the readers will survive an extra day without my wit and wisdom-- tongue firmly in cheek.

January seemed to be a long extension of the holiday season for me this year. Normally, I would be full steam ahead in to the New Year, but this time more than a few snafus in life took me on a roller coaster ride making the day to day complicated. I managed to meet my deadlines, but just barely…

Fortunately I have reached the place in my life where I realize that priorities must be set—and met. The things we worry about may or may not come to pass, the little things that seem so important aren’t, and those, who perhaps—over-depend on us, will survive if we don’t quite live up to their needs.

Sometimes even with the best intentions of trying to be true to all the voices clamoring for our attention, we let people down and they let us down. We need to have boundaries in place because without boundaries, we cannot be true to ourselves.

Perhaps, it will help them understand how much they rely on us- the fixers, the peacemakers, the slack picker-uppers. Sometimes we make it so easy for others, so seamless, they eventually come to believe it is a right. The way it will always be. And if we dare to veer off that course—well, the sun may seem to no longer rise and set for them and they panic. So begins the cycle again.

It is all too easy to blame ourselves for being weak, pat ourselves on the back for being ‘the one’ or bemoan the unfairness of it all, but if we are willing to risk the fall out and step forward, we can find our self somewhere in  the morass of  complication.

So, it is for us to remember to take time for ourselves, to remember who we are, what we believe and how we choose to live. It is for us to make the time, take the break and remember that as far as we know, we only have one short go-round on this big rock hurtling through space and we need to seize every moment we can.

New Year, New Day, New Life – markers, holidays, expectations—as always, every day is a chance to make changes. Begin fresh. Live life. Make it yours.

Complications in life are the norm rather than the exception. Life itself is nothing more than one big, complicated, beautiful mess and I for one wouldn’t have it any other way.

“And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”
From Desiderata, Max Ehrmann,
 
 

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