2014… A Fresh Start

2013 is over…. Thank God!

I’ve tried my best to be optimistic…but 2013 was just too much—even for an Adventurer like me!

My car broke down several times and I got stranded. My cruise to the Bahamas had to be canceled. My favorite dog died and so did a couple of my friends!

My husband divorced me without a biblical cause.  I lost everything in the divorce, including most of my personal belongings…

As you can see,  2013 was a tough one for me and it seemed equally tough for everybody else. But the good news is we’ve got a brand New Year starting this month.

So…What changes will we make in 2014?

I don’t know about you, but I intend to make it the best year ever!…as if it were my last! That is the key, folks. If we thought we only had ONE year left to live, we’d do more than make some silly New-Year‘s-Resolutions. We would do a major “over-haul” on our lives!

That’s what I’ve been trying to do, lately.

A few weeks ago, my youngest daughter called me from College. “I have to interview a person over 50,” she said. “And I want it to be you!”

 

I was pleased—even flattered—until I realized how painful it would be. She started asking me probing, bothersome questions…This 20-year-old, “would-be-Psychologist.” This grown-up little girl (who should still be jumping-rope and learning to tie her shoes!)

I blundered my way through the Interview as best I could. At the end, my daughter asked me the most unsettling question of all: “Have you ever had a Midlife Crisis…?” said my educated Baby Girl.

“Not really.”

“Oh yes—I think you did, Mother,” she mused. “When you went to California five years ago…That was a midlife crisis. You gave up everything in the Midwest and moved to the West Coast. You married someone you hardly knew…And now you are divorced.”

“Hmmm. But it’s not my fault, of course.”

She sighed and brought the Interview to an end.

That got me to thinking. Maybe my daughter was right. Maybe I’d been through a Midlife Crisis. I hadn’t handled it all that well—but at least I’d survived!
After that Interview, I started examining myself thoroughly. I began letting go of the dysfunctions that have hindered my life. I began identifying the annoying flaws in other people that I also share!
(Have you ever noticed that? The folks who drive you nuts are probably the ones that you are most like! Oh wow…is that ever embarrassing!)

 

It’s kind of like this….Whenever we overhear a heated argument, the people sound so immature—but then we realize that we sound equally foolish when we’re doing it ourselves.

That’s how it is in life. We’re all so pious, it seems. We say: “All you people who think you know everything…You are so annoying to those of us who do!”

When will we ever learn?

Are we teachable, or do we have to blunder on and on, making the same mistakes over and over? Can we change the ‘round and ‘round patterns in our brains? The worn-out clichés. The same old arguments and bad habits.

How do we shape a new Reality for ourselves?

I remember what I said to my daughter near the end of our “Interview” a few weeks ago. I told my Baby-Girl Psychologist: “‘The most important thing we can do is this: ‘Learn Lessons From Other’s-Failures, So We Don’t Have To Repeat Their Mistakes Ourselves.’”

And I’ll tell you the same thing, my Country Neighbors. If you can learn from my Midlife Crisis and the mistakes of others, you can have a Banner Year in 2014.

So…Go for it, my friends! Pop the cork on a brand new year and start it off right. Learn to recognize your own flaws. Learn to laugh at yourself, and not at others. Stop wasting your time on those who have thrown you away, and spend that energy on bettering yourself.

And most of all, listen to those who love you—(even if that means listening to a little Girl-Psychologist!)

Change those things in your life that need changing…And when 2015 rolls around, you’ll be so very glad you did!

Love to all of you! Make it the most wonderful New Year you’ve ever had…!

Vic

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