I am not going to lose weight this year. I am not going to save money or get organized. I am not even going to eat healthier. I am not going to learn a new language or spend less time on social media.
Or maybe I will. If it suits me. Because what I am going to do this year, what I am absolutely determined to do this year, is have fun. And if fun comes at the expense of a few “i”s getting dotted, well, so be it. I never fancied myself a hedonist, but I might need to revisit my self-concept, because I refuse to opt out of fun this year.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver really got it – life is so precious. But that doesn’t mean we should be precious about it.
Wait. Huh? Why am I messing with you this early in the morning?
Because the English language is weird and confounding. I am not messing with you, friends. Merriam-Webster is. And while “precious” certainly means “too valuable to be wasted,” it can also mean “trying too hard to be perfect.” I don’t make the rules.
Okay then. So if I were to say that life is too precious to be precious about it (and I am), what does that even mean?
I think it means we should get out there and live our best lives without losing sleep over achieving perfection. We can’t be so paralyzed by our need for something flawless that we miss out on something great. Because if there is one thing 2021 taught us, it’s that life doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. 2021 wasn’t always easy, it wasn’t always pretty, and it certainly wasn’t the antidote to 2020 that we may have been expecting. But it was precious all the same.
I need to do a little more living by my own words. I have been spending a tad too much time in my yoga pants, biding my time, waiting for things to get better, waiting for life to merit “hard pants” again. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is something to be said for watching Golden Girls and eating queso on the couch. But we can’t sit around and wait for life to get better. We can’t wait for things to improve. We have to make it good. Right now.
No, I can’t make quarantine protocols go away. I can’t make face masks obsolete. I can’t even keep a New Year’s resolution, which is why I wisely abstain from making any.
But I can go to goat yoga (Heck, I’m already in the right pants for it.). Or I can just close my computer and go for a walk in the snow. I can get messy, cold and/or covered in goat poop and somehow enjoy every moment of it.
Magic may be hiding just around the corner of this new year. You never know. So we may as well live. We’re here anyway, right? Don’t overthink things. Don’t insist on perfection – for life or for yourself. Just move forward. Say yes. Hit “publish.” Pretend life is a freaking fun-soaked sponge; grab hold of this precious life with both hands and wring every last bit of goodness right out of it.
We need to teach this lesson to our children, too, because while magic may be hiding just around the corner, life is always going to be hard, too. We might as well prepare them now.
I think what this means is that if you rent a house in Florida over winter break and your 12-year-old son is standing at the edge of the pool, you should probably go ahead and push him in. (Disclaimer: Assuming he can swim. And assuming he deserves it. But, let’s be real, if he’s 12, he probably deserves it.). But the kicker is that you have to follow him into the deep end – don’t hesitate, don’t be precious about it, just jump in.
Hmmm.
Oops.
I will totally remember that last part the next time I push my son into the pool. (Sorry, bud! Love you!)
And Happy New Year, friends. Let’s enjoy the heck out of this one.