Go Foward Anyway

I just finished feeding the birds on this snowy New Year’s Day. I can hear an early morning train moaning across the country side behind our house. It seems like just another ordinary day. But it is not. People everywhere, including myself, have resolved to make things better in 2019. This is the year many have decided to achieve those goals that have eluded them in the past. Most of these resolutions have to do with eating habits and exercise. I applaud those who want to eat healthy, lose weight, and regain the physical fitness they had when they were younger. Jack Lalanne, Richard Simmons, Jane Fonda, and about a 1,000 new YouTube fitness gurus have been telling us this for decades. Just remember, Jack Lalanne did his full workout routine the day he died. Just sayin’. (He was also 96, so there’s that.)   My point is … what is my point? Don’t be too discouraged if your plan to lose 50 lbs. and retrace Forest Gump’s running trails across America doesn’t work out. These challenges may make you better able to face another new year.

Maybe it’s time to do something new by starting your own Facebook fitness company? Remember we live at a time where the only thing you need to gain financial and personal success is hard work and a clever idea that you can sell. Look at all the people on who have found success by flooding the media with “interesting” ideas and wacky videos. Just image how much fun it would be to join the ranks of all the successful “reality” TV shows. Of course, you would need to find your own “unique” brand. I mean, just offering sensible ideas and factually based suggestions won’t work. You need to find an “angle”. Think of other reality shows. Guys on a fishing boat. Real housewives. Some losers in New Jersey.  You need to do something different. Maybe you could get a “mountain man trucker” to exercise with you or an Evangelical chef to prepare “holy” food. I know – maybe you could do your entire show wrapped in aluminum foil and saran wrap. Add some upbeat music? Maybe not. I’m not sure Under Armour or Nike will want to market aluminum foil shorts. Of course, there is another idea.

Maybe this is the year you turn down the noise. Go back to the things that have worked before. Listen to the people you know and trust. Ask the right questions so you get the right answers from the right people. The naked guy smeared in mud trying to win a prize by surviving who knows where is doing the best he can, but he won’t really teach you much about the way your life works. Decide what you want to do, make a plan, set reasonable goals, and have at it. And let your own wisdom guide you. Remember all those books you’ve read and experiences you’ve had. You know how easily things can change and how important it is to be flexible. You know all about how “well made plans” get disrupted. Go forward anyway. Sometimes the world can be cruel, but just as often it is remarkably beautiful. Make it your mission to find those moments in 2019.

Happy New Year.

Starfish

This is what life does. It lets you walk up to

the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a

stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have

your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman

down beside you at the counter who say, Last night,

the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder,

is this a message, finally, or just another day?

Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to the

pond, where whole generations of biological

processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reeds

speak to you of the natural world: they whisper,

they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old

enough to appreciate the moment? Too old?

There is movement beneath the water, but it

may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.

And then life suggests that you remember the

years you ran around, the years you developed

a shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon,

owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you are

genuinely surprised to find how quiet you have

become. And then life lets you go home to think

about all this. Which you do, for quite a long time.

Later, you wake up beside your old love, the one

who never had any conditions, the one who waited

you out. This is life’s way of letting you know that

you are lucky. (It won’t give you smart or brave,

so you’ll have to settle for lucky.) Because you

were born at a good time. Because you were able

to listen when people spoke to you. Because you

stopped when you should have and started again.

So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your

late night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And

then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland,

while outside, the starfish drift through the channel,

with smiles on their starry faces as they head

out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea.

                                                ……. Eleanor Lerman