Jack Lalane, Where are You?

The New Year will arrive within the hour and it surely is party time around here. Last night we made our last trip to the hospital for 2011 and found out that Bob has cellulitis on his leg. He hit his calf (and other things) when he dueled (and lost) with our front stoop on Christmas day. He’s on some medicine that knocks him out for about four hours each time he takes it. Since he is supposed to take it four times each day, I haven’t seen a lot of the dear boy today.

So I’m not really ringing in the New Year at some glitzy party or surrounded with drunks. My faithful pooch lies next to me, but that’s it for this Saturday night. I’m starting to hear the fireworks from people excited about the possibilities of starting over with a new year.

It’s amusing how we think some things will automatically be altered with the flip of a calendar page. (Really, you have to take an old one off and put the new one up if you have one already. Now these online calendars lose the thrill of a blank calendar.)

People make all sorts of resolutions as the New Year approaches. Many expect to be turned into Jack Lalane. (I wonder how many readers have no idea to whom I am referring.) We’ll go to work and get a raise, our husbands will automatically be transformed into a Casanova who does dishes and toilets. The kids will have “normal” hair and clothes and anxiously await our every word. You suddenly have so much free time now that your home is neatly organized and four extra rooms were added. Of course, you have jetted off to Paris or Rome so you don’t deeply care about the kids, home or hubby. Ahhhhhh. Life is good.

By noon tomorrow, many resolutions have already been broken. Your spouse and children look pretty much the same and the laundry has taken over the upstairs. Forget losing weight. Lock yourself in the bathroom with that tin of leftover Christmas cookies. Ahhhhhhh. Life is good.

I read on the Internet today, or more precisely Facebook, that many people are looking at Focus Words to sum up 2011 and dream for 2012. What would your word be? I pondered over different possibilities: wealth, health, prosperity, romance, excitement, dreams and respect. I think I would pick “serenity” for 2012. With serenity, I am not worried while I wait in some ER. My daughter’s family would continue to thrive out in Connecticut. My friends would only be a phone call away. All bills would be paid without that gasp and cringe from this past 2011. I dream of keeping this same feeling of alone time with my Christmas tree as it glitters and shines. I’ve the comfort of an old sweatshirt and the ease of this broken down couch. I can call out to my husband upstairs or umpteen people just a phone call away. (My husband probably wouldn’t hear me, but I could still call out!) Yep! Serenity! May we both be blessed with serenity in this fabulous year about to begin. Happy New Year. May your life continue to be good.

God Uses My Chronic Pain to Prove that Life is Good:

     -  I no longer need the material things to prosper in a new year. I just need God, my friends and family and this goofy little blog. Life is good!