2008 is almost here...

Hooray, another new year approaches.

I’ve done this before. I’m getting to be a virtual pro at coming up with resolutions. Now… if I could just actually stick to any of them I’d really be getting somewhere. In fact by my calculations – if I had lost the five pounds a year that I resolved to – every year – starting 10 years ago… I should weigh in at or about 80 pounds. Clearly this wouldn’t be a good thing. I would have to run around the shower to get wet, and with two little kids to look after I can’t afford the extra time that would take. I would also end up on Dr Phil – and for all the wrong reasons since, clearly at some point I will be a guest because something great I have written or done. It has had such a positive influence on the world that all talk show hosts will vie for my attention. Maybe I will win the Nobel peace prize because I have invented something that stops world wars. I will be selective; Oprah first, then Barbara Walters and then maybe Dr. Phil.

Yes – I have resolved to do many great things each time the New Year rolled around. World peace, world domination, making a lifesize sculpture of Harry Potter out of jello (okay, maybe not that one). Among them somewhere I think I also resolved to become really good at not letting the little things get to me – and then promptly experienced an unparalleled fit of road rage… at the Chucky Cheese parking lot. Stink eye from parents and children. I should get a trophy for that one.

One particularly ambitious year I decided I would learn a new skill. Something really exciting – like mountain climbing. I got as far as the top of my stairs but somehow think will not count this towards the afore mentioned goal.

Then last year was parasailing or waterskiing. I got on a banana boat and nearly broke my neck – does it count? Maybe not. But this one was at least close (ish). What? It WAS in the water…

Life just got in the way. Not in a good way like – I was too busy living life to the fullest. Nope. It just gets in the way sometimes – and so do the bills, the oil changes, the laundry, the dishwasher, cleaning out the attic, making a voodoo doll of my ex husband, grocery shopping and all of the other mundane tasks that make up the day to day. All of the things we plan to do get pushed forward another week, another month… maybe to next year. But what I fear will happen is, I will get to the end of my life and all of a sudden notice that all of those things I really wanted to do – never got done.

This year I resolve to take baby steps towards making sure that doesn’t happen. I will stop to smell the roses. I will remember to breathe and remind the people I care about how special they are – all of the time. They do afterall – deserve to know. I will also floss. Not everyday. Baby steps people. But I WILL floss. I will try to be more patient. I will make real mashed potatoes once and a while. I will try to understand that you cannot hold other people up to your own expectations – sometimes they are doing the very best that they can and that will have to be enough. I will fight for what is fair – and I will win in some small way – or maybe in a big way – but I will fight hard for what I believe is right. I will sing to the kids more. I will try to make people laugh. I will take the time to notice the little things that add up to the biggest things in the end. I will try to believe in myself and be kinder to myself. I will try to forgive others for the unkind things they clearly aren’t capable of understanding or doing differently. I will try not to eat an entire box of chocolates in one night (at least in two…). I will let myself cry. I will try to laugh more (though not at the same time…) I will jump in a puddle, maybe two. I will try to pay more attention to world politics and less attention to the gossip magazines. I will bake.

I say goodbye to 2007 with mixed emotions; it was a year of some incredible things that I will never forget – and of over coming the odds. It was a year that brought closure to one chapter of my life – and that I was eager to put behind me - and a much needed new beginning. A year where I have seen some of my dearest friends a great deal more than I have been able to before. A year of incredible surprises and some struggles. But the year that I will remember most for having brought me love. The kind that I never knew or could have imagined existed. All in all a pretty good year. One of the best of my life.

I have a feeling that 2008 will be an even better year. Here’s to hoping yours is too. (Does anyone have any dental floss I can borrow? I use the term “borrow” loosely – I won’t be returning it… unless you really wanted it back…which is really kind of disgusting…)