Ear Infections, Forced slow down, and New Years Resolutions

I’m forced to slow down as I lay in bed at 9:30 on a Friday morning on my side to let the ear drops soak into my ear. Forced to slow down from the holiday planning. Forced to burrow deeper into my blankets to avoid the 28-degree weather outside. Forced to think about the end of the year. 

I don’t understand how a woman of my age exactly came down with an ear infection. I haven’t been swimming in any lakes recently or ever. I haven’t been scuba diving recently or ever. I haven’t been surfing, that one was a legit question the doctor asked me as he was peering into my ear. My response? No, not recently, or ever. I could have gone on and on about my general distrust of large bodies of water that aren’t chlorinated, but I just said, “No, not recently or ever.” While I lay in bed, I thought about the things I hadn’t done recently, or ever for that matter, and I wondered what was out there for me to do. And more specifically, did I want to do anything? I’ve seen the great pyramids and King Tut’s golden mask. I’ve seen the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. I’ve taken a riverboat cruise to Amsterdam to see the tulips in bloom. I’ve owned a bakery and had a recipe of mine in a cookbook. I have a house on a hill that I get to live in with the love of my life. I have two of the best kids around who have given me two of the best daughters-in-law. My life is full, and I really want for nothing.

Society has programmed us that when the last two weeks of December roll around, we need to start thinking about things we want to change in the new year. Like most people, I have always had weight loss at the top of my list. Every. Single. Year. But I’ve also done that this past year, so now what? For the last couple of years, I have sworn off New Year’s Resolutions; they always made me feel worse about myself because inevitably, I would lose interest in what I thought I was going to change about myself and fall into business as usual, usually around the end of February. As I could feel the drops sinking further into my ear canal, I wondered if the reason I always failed at New Year’s resolutions wasn’t that I was a loser or a failure, but actually, quite the opposite. I was successful and extremely happy with life; maybe that’s why I couldn’t follow through on those arbitrary tasks I set for myself. I am who I am, and at almost 58 years old, I’m pretty happy and proud of how I’ve turned out. Life wasn’t always this rosy or easy, and I suppose the old cliche “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is true.

Next year, I won’t learn how to play the Cello or figure out how to do an Ollie on my skateboard. I won’t lose ten pounds or run a marathon. I won’t promise to write a blog post once a week or even monthly. Instead, next year, I am simply just going to keep being me. Unabashedly me, taking care of the people I love, changing the things I can or want to change, and letting go of things I can’t do anything about. I will send flowers to the people I love. I will send a card in the mail to an old friend, just because I was thinking of them that day. I will, as always, give all the cash in my wallet to anyone who needs it whenever they need it. I will stop putting arbitrary tasks on my list because the calendar says December 31. I feel like I’ve unlocked the master level of a video game, and I am the happiest I have been at the end of any given year. So, I say to you, my faithful reader who is still here through all this mush, in 2025, do what makes you happy, not what you feel you should be doing. Buy the airline ticket and travel, color your hair, have that piece of cake, or wake up early and sit in silence with your cup of whatever and breathe in and thank whoever you believe in that you made it through this year. Ask whoever you believe in to give us the strength to get through 2025 happy, prosperous, and healthy.

Happy New Year a little early, my friends.