2020 was awful. 2021 wasn’t much better. What happens in 2022 is mostly beyond my control.
While the world moves on, one way or another, regardless of what I do about it, I feel a little more solid when I take a look at what I do know and, for the most part, have a modicum of control over.
The following is a list that exists for me today. I always state it with a caveat that tomorrow it can change. If nothing about the last few years has taught us, it’s the need to go with the flow and be able to change, to adapt, to just do it on a moment’s notice.
So, here is my list:
1. Masks and being fully vaxed keep me safer than if I had neither.
2. It’s nothing personal.
3. I can be successful and I can fail. Neither defines me.
4. Sometimes writing the book is the easiest part of the whole process.
5. Even with all its foibles, missteps, and personality disorders, I miss my family of origin.
6. There is no such thing as being perfect.
7. Good health makes old age much more fun and content.
8. People can’t give you something they never learned to do themselves. (Cryptic, but I think you get it.)
9. Positivity will get me further into joy and happiness than negativity and being angry.
10. People want empathy more than advice. Better to actively listen than to speak.
11. And finally, the one thing I know for sure now and forever is that sometimes aging can be challenging.
Are there things you know for sure, right now?