New Year....same old me.

Here we stand on the threshold of another brand new year.  Some of us look at what is ahead with fear, after all the Aztecs didn’t bother to add any more time to their calendar after 2012.  Some of are full of hope, hence all the cherry cheeked presidential candidates.   Some of us will march fearlessly into the New Year with a list of personal changes tucked firmly under our arms.  Ladies and Gentlemen….I give you the dreaded New Year’s resolution.

Like every adult in the U.S.A. I’ve made more than my share of them, and my New Year’s resolutions have included but are not limited to:

I will lose ten pounds (or twenty or fifty)

I will stop smoking (which I did without the help of a New Year’s resolution)

I will be more patient (generous, tolerant, attentive, etc)

I will work harder (or not as hard)

I will learn to ski (or roller skate, or sing, or play the harmonica or something)

I will stop swearing (cough)

I will spend more time with (someone who drives me nuts and I avoid 364 days each year)

You get the picture, because just like every other dissatisfied adult in America you’ve made them, too.

Having shared that list with you I have an important announcement to make:

   I DO NOT have any New Year’s resolutions.   Not one….nada….zip….zilch.

I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you it’s because I believe I’ve reached perfection.  I only know that I am going into the New Year with one thought…..I am enough.   Perhaps this epiphany has come to me in the form of wisdom at this later stage of life, or perhaps it’s just fatigue, but it’s what I know.  

New Year’s resolutions are a search for perfection after we have compared ourselves to others and have been found wanting.   Over the years I’ve gotten past that and I’ve given myself permission to be who I am: a woman aware of her shortcomings and quite comfortable with them, thank you very much.  After wishing to be taller, smarter, more attractive or to define my talents, I have finally come to this understanding:  I can wear high heels to feel taller, I can read more to learn more, I can comb my hair more often, and I can admire other people’s talents….but I am what I am.

Over the years I’ve come to the gradual realization that I am “hard wired” in some areas of my personality, and my belief system has evolved through my life experiences.    I think I have always tried to be the best “me” possible, but trying to be someone I am not is a waste of my gradually diminishing energy.

Who wants to be perfect anyway?  The Kardashians are perfectly famous.  Lindsay Lohan is perfectly beautiful.  Donald Trump is perfectly rich.  Casey Anthony is perfectly free.    I wouldn’t want to trade places with any of them….would you?

I know I’m flying in the face of tradition here, but I think you should join me this year in my “no change…no way” mind set.   Check your emotional “basement” to make sure the foundation is secure, and then forget about it.  Maybe we’re not perfect, but then what is?       

                                          Be who you are….because you are enough.

                                                   Happy New Year... Life is good.