This year, I find myself on the corner of Regret and Resolution.

Last month, I stopped into my local Dunkin’ Donuts to get a Coconut Coffee and “A little treat”. As I stepped outside, I noticed that a Planet Fitness was coming next door.  There was equipment being brought in and construction workers gathered on the sidewalk.

I know this sounds like a bad joke, but if you know me…..you know I don’t have to make stuff up, my life is CHAOS.

I politely asked the guy in the hardhat, “When will this place be open?“, and I swear he looked at the Dunkin’ bag in my hand for at least 10 seconds before saying, “Early January, just in time for the New Year’s crowd.”

OUCH! Suddenly “My little treat” weighed a ton. 

There I was caught on the corner between Regret and Resolution. If you have been there, you already know- It is a crappy kind of place.

Why do we continue to do this to ourselves? All the choices we “owned’ in the previous year suddenly become cautionary tales for the next one.

No one had a perfect 2023 and I am willing to bet that other than the Miami Dolphins of 1972, no one EVER has a perfect year. 

And guess what, no matter how many regrets we have or how many resolutions we make, 2024 is coming and will entice us with blank calendars; begging us to fill up the white spaces with goals and activities. 

Some of us will write reminders in the margins or on bathroom mirrors…..

Make this year the best one ever!

Keep your eyes on the prize!

This is YOUR Year! 

Or my all time time favorite……Welcome to 2024- the Year of YOU!

You have seen them on social media, proclaiming that they are taking the new year by storm. They are taking no prisoners. 

I wish them the best.

We are told to leave Regret on the corner and take a right down Resolution Road. Don’t look back until you get to the end of the year. And yet we find ourselves at the corner once again. 

Heavy with too much cheese and holiday gluttony. Heavy with the pain of our choices or our intentions from the year about to end. 

Heavy with the decisions we did (or did not) make and the pain we endured…. or maybe even caused. 

Heavy with the paralyzing realization that no matter what we proclaim on the 31st, the year ahead is a living, breathing force.

Be careful what you feed it.

As for me…. my regrets are not entirely contained in the Dunkin’ Donut bag I am holding. The bag itself isn’t even symbolic of the regrets I wish to let go of on this New Year’s Eve.

I am not sure I am ready to let go of them so easily, so please don’t report me to the Resolution Police. 

I think I am going to loiter on the corner for a while, sip my Coconut coffee, and take my time making my way down Resolution Road.

After all, even the Planet Fitness faithful probably take a break until February. They know the drill. 

Happy New Year……..Please enter slowly and cautiously, and just let 2024 be what it is meant to be.

*To read more of Kathleen Palmer’s malarky, check out last year’s post Auld Lang See You Later published by our friends at Veteran’s Spouse Project.

*For a more goal oriented New Year’s Perspective, Check out HHUSA’s Post here.