Welcome to 2022. Can we all agree that 2021 continued many of the challenges of 2020? One of the benefits of writing a blog for eight years now (really?! eight years?!) is going back to read your old posts. Looking at my resolutions for 2021 I can emphatically state I was clueless as to what was to come in 2021. All that focus on what was to come did not prepare me. I predicted some things mostly correct – our daughters graduating from college and one heading off to graduate school while the other found a teaching job. And I did teach courses at Taylor, but they had some alterations. What did I have no clue about? Oh, things like the pandemic not ending, a daughter getting engaged, my freelance editing coming to an end for now, the other daughter purchasing a house, same daughter getting a dog, and me leaving Taylor after nearly twenty-five years to start a new job. So much more change than we could have expected in our lives.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Winston Churchill
So apparently, life decided we needed some improvement. All joking aside, what a year of change 2021 was. So my resolution for his year is to cherish every moment. Too often, we wait for future great moments and miss the incredible moments in front of us. We save our favorite jam on the shelf to enjoy later. We keep that cool notebook we received as a gift unwritten in waiting for the perfect project. We leave that fun shirt in the closet for the right event so it doesn’t get worn out. We choose not to write that note or call thinking we will do it later. We focus on work rather than taking a vacation day so we can save it for later rather than jumping at a random opportunity to be with someone.
2021 was a whirlwind and was hard to keep up with. As much as I tried to be in each moment, I know I missed so many opportunities to truly be there as I was instead focused on the next thing on the list. This year, I want to be more present, in the moment, cherishing the people around me and the experiences I encounter.
Do I know what is coming in 2022? I really don’t, and I am ok with that for the first time in my life, I think. I am such a planner and organizer, which will not change, but I don’t want to be so focused on what is to come that I miss what already is. The pandemic is still ongoing in the world. Change is going to keep happening this year. I plan to embrace it all, be the best me I can be, and cherish my family, my friends, and the moments we share.
What do you cherish in this New Year?
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