RESOLUTIONS

 
- Desiree Samuels, Contributing Writer

AAAHH! Here we go again, it’s that time. The holidays that literally started two months ago at Halloween are really over.  No more excuses, a brand new year . . . and, with the new year, what is traditionally next are RESOLUTIONS!  How I hate this ending to such a wonderful season of love & joy!  Ha, the bubble has burst, and reality is about to set in.

So now here I am pondering my past resolutions, trying to be honest about my shortcomings. What on earth should I EVEN begin to start with?  So many things, so little time!  The more I think about it, this year, I am tired of the health and fitness resolution.  Every year most of us have that as number one on the list.  The first two weeks go by fine, but by the first week of February, after losing 5 of the 15 pounds gained during the holidays, I’m like most others -- back to my old habits again. Old habits are hard to forget, life goes back to the same old routine, and so does the old habitual, every-once-in-a-while exercise routines return.  However, with that said, I am also left with the extra 10 pounds, that I did not unload.

And then, my second ever-so-popular resolution:  organization.  I spend the last weeks of each year getting everything in order.  I hate those miserable piles of magazines, mail, receipts, cards etc. that collect in almost every room of my house.  But as always, I do have an excuse for this disarray.  I am a busy, social mom, with tons to do -- who has time to file things away? Then, those last two weeks in December arrive.  In anticipation of the New Year and the resolutions to follow, I frantically file away 11 months worth of receipts, forms, papers, objects etc.  I become so incredibly organized that I forget where I placed things when I need them.  And yes, the old routine follows, by the end of January, the same old piles being to form again!

Already I am realizing I am part of this vicious cycle of unbreakable habits.  I want to be perfect and emulate the life suggested by my surroundings.  You’re affected by it everywhere, as every billboard, magazine, TV commercial, website and pop-up ad has a suggestion for that perfect life.  We are surrounded by headings like “Ten best solutions to an organized life” or “Best exercise to keep you fit for life”.  So I follow these suggestions, yet I fall back into the same old trap. What can I be doing wrong with these resolutions of mine?

I think this year I may finally have the answer to end this never-ending trap.  My New Year’s resolution this year is simply to be myself, to be in tune with my own needs and those of my family.  I don’t need to emulate the suggestive lifestyle around me.  Yet I need to be honest with myself as to my strengths and shortcomings.  Only then can I properly evaluate what is needed or not.  Like everything else in life, it all comes back to honesty.  Thus, this year, in 2008, MY RESOLUTION THIS YEAR IS TO FINALLY, FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, TO BE HONEST WITH MYSELF AND BE IN TUNE WITH WHO I AM, AND HOW I CAN BETTER MY LIFE AND THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND ME.