Yesterday was a perfect Sunday. Coffee, farmers market, yoga, reading Patti Smith and a little life planning. Patti Smith’s new(ish) book ‘Year Of The Monkey’ is intoxicating. I forced myself to put it down - save a little for later. I am not sure what is harder; putting down a good book or saying no to a second helping of a delicious dessert.
I’ve been trying, rather in vain, to set my commitments for the new year. New Year’s Resolutions some might call them. I’ve been testing a few new techniques and re-hashing some old ones but I’m just not feeling it for 2020. So, as I often do when I am trying to force myself to do something, I put a Netflix movie on in the background.
TheSecretLifeOfPets2 seemed sufficiently brainless to accompany my task. It’s terrible and adorable - the perfect combination to distract me but not take me off task.
I was half paying attention - at best - for the entire movie. Yadda Yadda, antic there and antic here and happily ever after. Then the very last lines of the movie struck me out of nowhere. “You never know what life is going to throw at you and you have two choices: run from it or run at it.”
One of my dearest girlfriends used to say that sometimes you have to throw rocks at life. Sometimes you have to fight. Demand what you want. Sadly she lost that fight last year, suddenly, and nothing feels important enough in the wake of that. She would have liked Pets2, we had the same weird sense of humor. She would have liked the idea of running at life. Regardless of what it throws.
Resolutions can get complicated. Grandiose some might say. They can also get repetitive and they very often are redundant. Even small.
Life is so much bigger than a resolution. The beginning of a new year is a great time to ask yourself what you really want. What are you willing to be fearless about? What will you fight for?
So write that down. Make that your resolution. Commit even harder to that.
Run at life with all you have. Make 2020 about that. However it looks for you. I’ll see you at the finish line.