GET WITH WHAT IS

Our dear friend and lifestyle writer Christina Kelly sent this to us the other day:


It’s a new year: how about we stop wishing that our lives were different? Yes, a few things in life may be changed by sheer will, but most of them—for instance, your height, or the family you were born into—will remain just as fate has handed them down. I am quoting one of my most down-to-earth yet profound yoga teachers: "Get with what is." Her point is that we should stop expecting the essential order of the universe to be different or better. Stop wishing the economy would improve instead of working with what is, stop longing for a bigger house instead of making the one that you have nice for yourself. Also, desist wishing that your child brushed his teeth without being asked, and that your husband would enter the house crooning love songs and carrying a bunch of roses. You cannot change other people. You could waste your whole life fretting about the unchangeable. Once you are no longe r waiting for the impossible, you will experience a kind of peace. You will be able to move forward in life despite the fact that conditions are not perfect. You will take the garbage to the curb in spite of the sleet, invite friends over though your couch is frayed, and basically, be happy with what you have.