Is anyone else rocking out to the new decade blues? Unlike Christmas with pleasant surprises under the tree, life doesn’t always come wrapped in a pretty red bow. Most of my friends are excited to start a new year. While I however am buried under rocks of anxiety and nervousness. As I scroll through Facebook seeing everyone’s New Year resolutions and weight loss plans, I wonder what my one hit wonder will be this go round? How about: “Better Budgeting with Bob the Builder?” Or “How to lose 40 pounds in a week with Fat Amy?” How about Stress Management with “Don’t Worry Be Happy Vitamins for Life with Bob Marley?”
With all jokes aside, Bob the Builder can fix most things, but he cannot fix my budget. Although Fat Amy makes me laugh inches off my life it isn’t her job to manage my weight loss. And as happy as Bob Marley’s music makes me feel it cannot be a permanent reliever for my stress. I am the only one who can change any of these things for the better. Shut the front door…. Did I just say that out loud?? (insert side eye roll emoji) I have this one friend who is ALWAYS talking about setting healthy boundaries and how beneficial they are in her life. I listen to her yack about it but I have never understood how to make it work in my life. I want to be one of those people who have it all together and have all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed, but I cannot seem to make that happen. It’s more like I have my t’s dotted and my i’s crossed.
My beautiful friend that I was telling you about does not have it altogether either but what she does have is peace. She has a constant steady peace. Peace. What is peace? Where does it come from? How is it produced? Can I create peace? As I contemplate and wonder if the answer to peace will ever come, there is one thing I know for sure. I cannot control what life throws at me; however, I can control how I catch it. I know for myself that I tend to react more than respond which is not healthy. A reaction is something worked up out of strife from a physical or mental state. Yet a response yields a reflection and pulse of the heart. As this New Year begins, I am not making a “One HIT Wonder” for Britney Spears to sing about. I am making a choice to set healthy boundaries for myself. Boundaries are wonderful for relationships, but they are also great to set for you as a person. No one can take care of you like you. So, for myself I am choosing to daily check the pulse of my response instead of allowing a reaction to swell up. I am choosing to set a boundary in my life to choose peace instead of strife. I choose to embrace this New Year to take a deep breath and be thankful even if my t is dotted and my i is crossed. Peace isn’t having everything perfected like the Jones’s. Peace is welcomed in the daily yielding to the response, the pulse of the heart.