New Year's Resolutions

I have always loathed the idea of New Year's Resolutions. This comes from my childhood, when my mother would write a list and present it to me, saying, "Here are your New Year's Resolutions for this year." This always underscored the fact that I wasn't good enough as I was, that I wasn't the child she wished she had. 

I loathed the idea, yet for many of my adult years I still felt compelled to make that list on December 31, knowing all the while I was doomed to fail. Old habits -- especially bad ones! -- are hard to break.

Today a friend from my Guild posted a poem on her Facebook page, a poem that didn't just speak to me; it sang to me. Especially the second line: "Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?"

Y'all know I'm not much of a poetry person. But I just might check out more of what this Donna Ashworth writes.

And so I share this wonderful voice of sanity with you, a gift for the New Year. 

You're welcome (and Happy New Year)!

Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve?

Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?

I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation, for all we survived.

And I say a new year should start with promises to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear, as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life.

And if we are to promise more, let’s pledge to rest, before our bodies force us.

Let’s pledge to stop, and drink in life as it happens.

Let’s pledge to strip away a layer of perfection to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity we truly are inside.

Why start another year, gifted to us on this earth, with demands on our already over-strained humanity.

When we could be learning to accept, that we were always supposed to be imperfect.

And that is where the beauty lives, actually.

And if we can only find that beauty, we would also find peace.

I wish you peace in 2023.

Everything else is all just a part of it.

Let it be so.

Donna Ashworth