By Lori Perkins
(I am reposting my 2022 article, because it is still so relevant)
This time last year I was halfway through five and half months of chemo treatment, sleeping 12 hours a day and completely hairless. It was the first time in my life when I started to write up my New Year’s resolutions and said, “this is bullshit,” and just wrote “live.”
As I’ve written before, experiencing the pandemic and breast cancer simultaneously changed my perspective (https://www.romancedailynews.com/single-post/how-covid-and-cancer-taught-me-to-be-truly-thankful), and one of the biggest changes was how I look at the future, especially MY future. It became very clear to me that I am not in control of anything but how I behave and the most important things in my life are the people and my relationships with them.
For the past 20 years, my New Year’s resolutions have probably echoed every other woman my age who thinks of herself as a creative – get better organized so I can do more – more writing, more editing, make more money, publish more books. And look better - loose weight, exercise more, get more sleep.
Last year I wanted to be cancer-free, and if that ended up being the case (as it was!!!), I wanted to be…better. I changed my concept of “resolutions” to goals, which are so much more achievable.
I wanted to be a better friend
a kinder person
a true mentor
find my joy every day
The last one – find my joy every day – has now become my mantra and is the single thing that has gotten me through the worst of every day. There is joy everywhere if we look for it, joy that we take for granted because we, as a culture, have been focused on things.
My joy is composed of simple things such as every day I take the time to actually look out my window and see the beautiful vista that I have of the Hudson River. Before lockdown, I was always rushing and couldn’t even take five minutes to just appreciate the view that I pay a small fortune for.
I love that I can get eight hours sleep now. I love sleep, which I always took for granted and felt kept me from working and creating. Now I make time for sleep and look forward to it (so I have mastered that old New Year’s resolution).
I would sincerely love to hear yours 2022 New Year’s goals. Please send them to me lori@romanceDaikyNews.com
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