The New Year is just hours away. I guess this means
I have until midnight to come up with one or more great
resolutions for 2015. The timing of this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. We
get ourselves all wrapped up in the panicky days leading up to Christmas, and
then we’re supposed to calm down, reflect on the past year, and decide how we
can make the coming year better.
I would think not going crazy with shopping, cooking, and
just out-and-out stressing would be the first thing to go, right? And yet, by
the time this season rolls around again, we tend to forget those good
intentions, and our resolutions turn into ‘wrestlelutions’ over who’s going to
bring dessert and when we can take the perfect Christmas card photo, preferably
before December 25.
There are things I hope to accomplish in 2015, such as
eating healthier and going to the gym more. Wait – I mean, going to the gym at
all. Another one of my resolutions will be to stop making myself crazy about
everything that has to get done for First Born’s May wedding. I believe I can
accomplish that by early June if I really concentrate.
One more goal will be to keep the kitchen table cleaned off
so that we could use it as an actual kitchen table. Yes, I do realize I've
mentioned this lofty goal before, and I will admit that it is more of a
housekeeping thing. Have we discussed my housekeeping technique? There are days
when I am convinced that running a bulldozer through the place would be the
most effective tool in de-cluttering my life. So if I could start off slowly with the kitchen table, which
has spent the past month covered in pre-Christmas sales flyers from the Sunday
paper, it might become a regular thing. By the way, none of them enticed me
to enter their space, except the candle store whose buy-2-get-2-free flyer has
been pushed to the top of the pile as a not-so-subtle hint that went right over everyone's heads. I finally took matters into my own hands when I realized the coupon could be used online, and am now awaiting delivery of four scents that sound good enough to eat... except maybe the patchouli. I wouldn't have trusted anyone to know enough to order a patchouli scented candle anyway.
Getting back to resolutions (and away from the sales), I
have to be honest. At the end of 2013, I hadn’t made any resolutions for the
New Year, not even one to not make any more resolutions. In a true show of irony, 2014 has been
the most positive and beneficial period for some of my personal goals in
several years. Naturally, that took some deciding as to how to go about making
it happen. But it wasn’t based on a resolution on December 31 to change things
this year. It was the circumstance of several small decisions that were more
like steps on the way to achieving some goals. And maybe that’s the secret, for
me at least, to stepping into my own expectations for the next year.
Resolving to change means resolving to be open to change.
Life shifts with the passing of each day, and if we’re lucky and willing, we
can edit those resolutions along the way and accomplish some pretty cool
things.
Whether or not you have an actual resolution at midnight on
December 31, my wish for you is that you are given the chance to make those
edits along the path and feel accomplished in your own way. And if you happen
to know the secret to keeping the kitchen table clean, please pass it on.
Happy New Year!
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