Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! Seriously. -- Maggie Shayne

“Ho, ho, ho!”

Oh, wait, that wasn’t politically correct, was it? Okay, let me try again.

“Lady of the evening, lady of the evening, lady of the evening!”

(Yes, I stole the joke from one of those blue collar rednecks on Comedy Central. So sue me.)

Christmas is over! That’s right, my friends, we survived another one and now we’ve got 51 weeks before we have to go through it again. Actually, if you count to when the stores start with the decorations and piped in carols, we probably have more like 40 weeks. Maybe 35. But we’ll take what we can get, won’t we?

Why do we take a perfectly wonderful holiday and torture ourselves to the brink of insanity over it? We angst over finding the perfect gift, baking the perfect turkey, picking the perfect tree. We start finding fault with our homes when we think about having holiday guests, suddenly realizing we need new furniture or paint or flooring or dinnerware, and we need it NOW. We feel put upon if we get too many invitations and ignored if we get too few. We shoulder our way through throngs in the malls and gripe about it the entire time. Why is it that being alone on Christmas can make even the most hard-boiled, independent, loner-hermit cry? Why is it that being inundated with relatives on Christmas can make the most Martha Stewart-like hostess scream with frustration? What is WRONG with us that we attach so much importance to a number on the calendar?

We’re freakin’ nuts, that’s why.

I took the easy way out this year, doing most of my shopping online. So I didn’t get to gripe and be a mall martyr. I kind of missed the throngs, though. I didn’t have to make dinner for anyone, (and it depressed me) when most years I make a huge dinner for everyone (and it makes me crazy.) There’s just no pleasing some people. =) It didn’t snow, and everyone was pissed about that, but it stormed the next day and everyone was griping about the roads.

Ah, well. Whatever, it’s over. And now we’re heading into the big weekend follow up, and we can kiss 2006 behind and look ahead to a brand new year. I posted my resolutions over at my website and I think they’re good ones. They’re resolutions I’ll keep. This I know. For a lot of years I was just like everyone else, making resolutions and never keeping them—usually forgetting them by Groundhog’s Day (Imbolc, to the Wiccans.) They were always the same: Lose weight, work harder, spend less, save more, pay off debt.

Those are really tough things to keep up with. Hard things to do. So this year I’m focusing on joy. My main resolution is to just be happy every single day. Even on the bad days, I’ll find something to enjoy, something to make me smile, to make me feel great. Every single day.

It works better than all those other resolutions, and here’s why. When I’m happy, I have more energy. When I have more energy, I exercise more because I enjoy it. Exercising releases endorphins and makes me feel strong and capable and fit, and that in turn, makes me even happier. I don’t do stress-eating when I’m happy, or misery-binging, or loneliness-chowing. I get to noticing how good I look from the exercising, which I do because I’m happy and that makes me even more happy, and then I eat healthier because looking in the mirror makes me happy and I want more of that feeling. Being happy results in staying in shape.

Working harder is easier when I’m happy. I can’t focus on work when I’m sad or depressed or angry. But if I’m happy, I can run into the office and do my daily page quota in a couple of hours. That makes me feel GREAT, and then I have the rest of the day to do fun things and that makes me even happier.

When I’m happy, I don’t go out and spend money to fill the void unhappiness leaves in my heart. Spending to ease depression is a really common problem. Being happy makes me feel less need to fill my life with “things” to take up the space. There is no space, because it’s all full of joy. So I spend less and save more when I’m happy, which gives me more ability to pay off debt.

All the usual New Year’s resolutions can be achieved by making and keeping just one. Be happy. Every single day, seek out joy. Everything else will fall into place. I promise!

Happy (and I do mean HAPPY) 2007!

Maggie

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