“New” Year
Fri ,01/01/2010Been poking my nose through blogland lately, noticing how much now, everybody seems to have disliked 2009. Hated, loathed, etc. What gives? Yes, a lot of incredibly shitty things happened this year. My own 2009 took a sharp decline in terms of enjoyable events, and a sharp increase in terms of catastrophic events, as the year progressed. A lot of bad stuff went down, and at first, I was inclined to jump on the bandwagon with middle finger flying and pants pulled down shooting the moon to passing year. Ready to welcome 2010, this is the year it all gets better!
But… why? If I look back on 2009, there were more things to be happy about than to be disappointed or sad about. In terms of quantity, I had more good things happen to me than bad. Yes, I lost my job, etc, etc, but… that just happened once. Maybe … the things that sucked so bad about 2009 weren’t the events in my life, but rather, how I handled them, and my outlook on them. And you know… if that’s the case… how is 2010 going to be any different?
I lost my job. Once. But I spent more time crying about it and feeling shitty about it, and bitching and moaning than I did trying to fix it or find a new one. That’s not the year’s fault, or my ex-employer’s fault. The fault there is my own. I’ve been strapped for cash. But you know what, I survived. I didn’t have enough to do what I wanted to, but I made it. That should be celebrated, but I’ve been looking at what I didn’t have.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other night, about appreciating what we do have when we have it. He really helped balance that equation for me. Yeah, we should be grateful and thankful for what we have. If all we have is bread and water, and that is enough to get us by in the moment, we should appreciate that, and be thankful for that. But that doesn’t mean we should stop striving to be fulfilled in the way we want to be either. Bread and water is good, but if you want steak and potatoes, you shouldn’t stop trying to reach for that, and you shouldn’t let anything stand in your way when you have the chance to grab that either.
We’re human, we strive to achieve our hopes and dreams. And yeah, this past year, a lot of us have had some major stumbling blocks placed in our way. But I hold that it’s been our attitudes that have been the block, and the real fault didn’t lie in the events of the past year, but rather in our outlooks on life, and how we handled the disappointments, the heartbreaks, the setbacks and pitfalls.
So. It’s a new year. Now what. Will I approach it the same way, and have the same year this year, with different circumstances? Or will I work on truly appreciating the little things in my life again, finding thanks with my bread and water? Will I let that be enough, or can I also appreciate the large things in my life as well, and never stop reaching for what sweeps me up and ignites my hopes?
Waiter, steak and potatoes please.