New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! Yup, it's the start of a new year . . . clean slate, new beginnings, fresh start, etc. It's the time for RESOLUTIONS.

Or IS it?

Frankly, I believe resolutions set you up to fail. I used to believe in making them and at the end of each year I'd kick myself for not following through.

A friend of mine made the astute comment that many resolutions come in a negative form: I will quit smoking, I won't eat sweets, etc. And they tend to be black or white - no wiggle room for life throwing you a curve ball and subsequently making the follow through that much harder.

So instead of making resolutions this year I have made a wish. I had the good fortune to spend New Year's in Ocean City with a friend and on January 1st, I walked along the beach and made a wish. My wish - unrelated to peace on earth, a healthy planet, and happiness for my family and friends - my PERSONAL, SELFISH wish is to let go of the outcome on things in my life: auditions, other jobs, love-life, marathons (or other races) and the like. This is not to say I won't plan, and hope, and work. It's just to say that life has a funny way of not turning out the way you want it to so why hold out for an outcome about which you have no control? Instead, I wish to be open to whatever gifts the universe sends my way.

And when I look back at 2005, the universe sent an abundance of gifts my way:
- enough work as an actor to pay my insurance
- new friends and lots of fun times with old friends
- a summer fling and a winter "not-sure-yet-what-to-call-it"
- a new home in a fabulous pink house
- good health and my sixth marathon
- a trip to Hawaii!

And that's only a sampling of all the great things that came my way last year.

So here's to 2006 and all of its potential gifts without the resolutions. Cheers.