Hey Y’all: A New Year—A New Me?

Once again we have sung Auld Lang Syne and made our plans for an exciting new year.

Marlene Ratledge Buchanen

What shall we do? What shall we change? Should we change?

Do you make resolutions? I never made them with any sense of seriousness. I guess I knew I would never hold to them all that well. There were flashes of losing weight, exercising regularly, being more organized. Yeah, they still don’t work. I don’t even write them down. Actually, I am short and fat and although I was once an athlete, I am now an old woman with way too much to do in my life.

I once was very organized. I never left work that my desk wasn’t clean and things were filed in the proper place. All I had to do the next morning was pull one basket toward me and take out the first item. I had left things in proper sequence from the evening before. Today, I have three baskets, overflowing. Three calendars to be updated and checked and no way do they match up.

I would like to be more organized—like I used to be. When I was working 8 to 10 hours a day, I had to be organized. When I left work there was another world I had to take care of. Now I work 12 to 18 hours a day and you can’t tell I’ve done a dern thing. (Dern, that is southern for damn.)

Time has a way of taking care of a lot of things. Given enough time my whole house will be filled with cat fur balls, enough dust to write the Magna Carta in, twice, and a short, fat, old woman with still too much to do.

Maybe I should have only one New Year’s Resolution. Saying no. No is one of the hardest words for me to pronounce. My friends know this. That is why they call. Sometimes I wonder if I hear from these people because they want to see how we are or if they just need something. I know that isn’t true. When Snell and I were so sick with Covid and he thought he had the right to die on me, friends dropped off food, gathered out mail, and offered help.

“No, I appreciate your asking.” “No, I’m sorry I wish I could.” “Thank you thinking of me, but no, I can’t.”

How hard was that to write? Not at all. How hard is it to say out loud? REALLY hard. I must practice.

Whatever your new you is, smile and think with pride “I am me. I have another day to be the best me I can be.” That is best resolution.

A southern humorist, Marlene is the 2020 Georgia Independent Author of the Year for Life is Hard, Soften It with Laughter and 2021 GIAYA for A Place with a Past. Marlene is available for speaking engagements. You may reach her through her website www.MsRatWrites.com.

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