What My 3 Year Old Taught Me About New Year Resolutions.

     As we sat at the lunch table today, our conversation turned to the inevitable chatter of New Year's Resolutions.  Our table included 5 people ranging from 3 to 59.  It was easy enough to agree on the ever present goal of eating better and excercising more often...Planet Diet is now in orbit.  Once we cleared our minds of that certain universal truth, we came across the really interesting stuff.

    Setting goals or resolutions is a great way to reflect on where we have been, where we are and where we are going.  The goals we set say so much about our perspective on the world and what drives us.  Not only does it help us to understand ourselves better, but it also helps us to understand others.  

   This year, our 3 year old was ready to get in on the action.  When the conversation landed on her, she  informed us, with a fair amount of flourish, that she would like to be Belle and go to a farm in the New Year.  "Separately?  Or at the same time?" I asked.  "Seperately," she decidedly told her audience of adoring fanily (Fanily: Family who await, admire, and adore every action of a child or relation, with the same or greater fervor that would be awarded to a beloved sports team or celebrity.)  In the glow of her glistening cuteness, I considered pushing her for more info and more goals and more. More. MORE.  

     "Freeze!" I implored upon my impulse to project my own goals upon her .  This is great!  This is a mark of where she is at, how she understands the world and her desire to grow and do things she hasn't done before.  As an adult, those dreams and goals get wildly complicated and sometimes go out the window when met with any mite of adversity.             

     Therefore, in solidarity with my daughter's simple, well expressed desire for something of whimsy and something just beyond my normal everyday life, I am re-evaluating the way I make goals.  So many times we are measuring ourselves up to Nancy Neighbor (who is no longer just the Jones family who literally live next door.) Nancy is every Facebook post of smiling families, new jobs, vacations, engagements, and the like.  She isn't bad.  We just don't see her flaws.  She is that retouched, no dimension picture of a beautiful person made into something sterile and with a complete lack of uniqueness.  The blissfully simple goals of my 3 year old have not been tainted by the rounded off edges of social media...yet.  

     In the light of this moment, which took a fraction of a second to pass and 5 paragraphs to tell of, I am again washed over with a gratefulness for my daughter's unintentional, yet brilliant teachings.  

     My New Year's Goal will be to anchor all my goals and wishes in the beauty of simplicity.  A simplicity that isn't yearned for like something from a historical time long past.  A simplicity that isn't even contained by the holiness of childhood.  This simplicity is for the present version of everyone.  Empowering myself with this tool means that while I can be inspired by those around me, by technology and by events, the things that make me truly tick might be right under my nose.  

     Happy New Year!!!

   

     Lisa Marie Morabito Petersen