2022!

 It’s 2022!

Woo Hoo!!!

But here’s the million-dollar question...What does the New Year really mean, given that we are still in the throes of COVID?

All bets are off now as to when this thing is going away – or, more aptly stated, when this pandemic will become an endemic – so I’ve decided to diss my New Year’s resolutions efforts of how I can be a better, more productive person and instead focus on how I can come out of this craziness relatively sane.   

I realize that I’m in survival mode, and as such I don’t need to push myself to write more, volunteer more, work more, organize more, exercise more, and so on...the status quo is good enough, for now.

In lieu of experience in this uncharted territory – mine or anyone else’s – to get me out of this seemingly endless funk, I’ve made the decision that it’s OK to bend my own rules, let go of my expectations for my behavior and accept that moving forward doesn’t always play out in the same way.

Here’s a sampling of my “I’m doing OK, even if I...” list:

...Eat dessert for breakfast

...Wear my PJs through dinnertime

...Facetime, talk or text the day away

...Endlessly scroll through Facebook, Instagram and email

...Surf the web for hours and hours, read celebrity gossip and all of Carolyn Hax’s advice columns, dating back to 1997

...Watch hundreds of crochet tutorials on fun new patterns to try and then make the same old square blanket

In other words, all this stuff I’d ordinarily be encouraging myself NOT to do before COVID put our lives on hold is now fair game, because these restrictions have made me see life differently.

However, once I feel free again to come and go as I want – without health concerns – I wonder if I’ll revert back to my old habits of trying to make every minute count.