this time of year
christmas can be a challenging season and, as december 31st inches near, it's also a period of great reflection and introspection for me. one year ends and another gets ready to begin.
more often than not, i find myself scrutinizing what was and what was not over the previous 12 months of my life. more specifically, scrutinizing myself. what i was and what i was not. frequently, i am my own harshest critic.
this december, it's not just the end of a year, but the end of a decade. so i find myself not only looking back at 2009, but reflecting on the past ten years.
in some ways, i have made great strides. in other ways, i have spun on a hamster wheel. and in a few ways, i have actually stumbled backward.
earlier today, i began thinking about what i would write for my annual year-end blog post. in 2007, i wrote about learning from the past. and in 2008, i wrote about looking ahead with optimism.
i'm not yet sure what this year's theme will be, but perhaps the key will be focusing on a message i saw posted on a bulletin board a few months ago... a message that drifted back through my thoughts this afternoon:
"happiness is really, really wanting what you already have."
8 comments:
Isn't that the great worth of keeping a blog, to be able to look back and see where we've come? I look forward to your end-of-the-decade post.
I LOVE THIS:
"happiness is really, really wanting what you already have."
lou, yep. it's also a way to recognize patterns (good and bad), and to measure what's changed and what's stayed the same.
and, if i sit back to truly reflect and analyze, i may have to break up the end-of-decade post into installments.
patti, i remember reading that quote and thinking how simple but profound the concept is, and yet how difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, it can be to adopt.
Does it help any if I remind you that the second decade of the 21st century doesn't really start until 2011? (That's because there was no Year Zero.) Think of it as a one-year extension before your hardcore retrospection comes due.
Don't you think you have to be slightly "geezerish" to appreciate that statement.
Not saying it's not a wonderful and true message, but ....
Looking forward to both catching up here (((Vic))) and to your end of the year writing.
"geezerish"? :-)
i think i get what you're saying -- that it takes a lifetime to appreciate the truth of the statement, and perhaps easily embrace it -- but i think it's still good to tuck away in the back of one's mind if at all possible. (and i say that as someone for whom it is practically impossible.)
and matt, doesn't 2000 count as year zero?
The 1st century was years 1-100, so the last decade of the 1st century was years 91-100. The pattern repeats throughout the centuries, so that the 20th century was years 1901-2000 and 1991-2000 was its last decade. The 21st century started a year later than everyone thinks it did, and so we're only nine years in.
Of course, comments like this made me unpopular at Y2K parties ten years ago. But in this case, I'm trying to save you from extra retrospection... don't fight it!
Although I see how wanting things you don't have can make you unhappy, the happiness quote is a little much for me too. It seems to dismiss hope (since you don't need to hope for what you already have), and hope is a pretty powerful and positive force.
hmmm.
it's a highly subjective statement, i think.
maybe being happy with what you already have depends on what you already have.
and what you want.
and the things for which you hope.
you're right, it does have the potential to over-simplify the concept of being happy, and a lot does depend on the individual circumstance of the person seeking happiness.
perhaps that won't be the theme of the end-of-year blog entry, after all. ;-)
as for the year-zero info: ah, i see!
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