New Year's Resolutions

January 8, 2013

Every year at this time, people make New Year's Resolutions.  TV news shows, review the previous year's events, list all the celebrities who departed this earth, etc.  I find the whole process boring.  I know what happened last year.  I lived though it and it wasn't all that great.  Do I really need to be reminded of the weather disasters the tragedies, the inaction of congress?  Really?  Once was enough.

Now I don't mean to be a downer, but I  started off this year with a doozie of a cold.  and speaking of reliving the past, I just had one at Thanksgiving, so I am not in a very good mood.  I am 75 years old as of January 3.  I remember when I was a little girl asking my aunt Helen, who was 29 at the time, how old she was.  When she told me I said "oh I hope I don't live to be that old."  Now aunt Helen is 5 months shy of 96 and at this point, she doesn't want to live to be that old.

aunt Helen lives alone in a walk up apartment.  Her nephew and his wife live next door.  The steps to her apartment are on the outside of the building.  Two flights and then another flight down to the basement where she does her laundry.  Yes, she does her own laundry and she does her own cleaning.  Her kitchen is clean enough to eat off the floor, and I am not kidding.  There have been times when I've asked her if she'd like to go to Lancaster or out to lunch and if it happens to be on a Friday, the answer is "oh no, I have to clean the kitchen".  Of course I am of the Maxine school of thought when it comes to housekeeping  "Life is short, why clean?"  So, I have little patience when it comes to turning down getting out of the house so you can clean.  But hey, when you're going on 96 you do what you  have to do.

We've had our ups and downs over the years, aunt Helen and I.  She's never really approved of my life style.  Never understood why I had to move to Lancaster and then Washington and CA.  She was born in Elizabethtown and never ventured out except for small trips.  But that's okay, sometimes I think she may have had the right idea.  But those moments are rare.  For the most part, I've enjoyed my life and as the song says "I did it my way."  I made mistakes and I often wonder if I had the chance to begin again knowing what I know now if I would do the same stupid things.  Would I have tried harder to be better in school.  Would I have finished things that I started?  Who knows and I guess it's a non-productive exercise.  What I really need to do is keep writing, get out my paints and do some art work and oh, speaking of exercise (was I? I need to get back to the pool and get these bones moving.

So January 2013 is half over.  I think it's time to stop living in the past and begin living in the present.  Make every day count and look forward to a happy and healthy future.