All Around Pennsauken

By Judith Kristen, AAP Columnist

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

First of all, I wish everyone, everywhere joy, good health, peace, love, and happiness in this upcoming year!

Second of all… how are you doin’ with your New Year’s resolutions? Did you make any? Hmm?

As for me, I’m at the point where the normal resolutions of life are… well… they don’t always work out as planned, do they?

I typed that with a smile on my face by the way.

Looking back over old diaries… here are a few of my resolves of the past.

1964… I will meet George Harrison before the year is out! Actually, that DID happen!

1965… I will marry George Harrison before the year is out. That did NOT happen.

1967… I won’t have any children until I’m 30! By the time I was 27, I already had four.

Then as the years rolled on…

1989…I will get my weight down below 150.

1992… I will count my calories daily until I get below 160.

1994… I will follow my new diet unfailingly until I get below 175.

1996… I will develop a more realistic attitude about my weight.

1998… I will work out 5 days a week.

2000… I will work out 3 days a week.

2003… I will faithfully watch Richard Simmons’ “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” CD every day at lunchtime while eating celery sticks and drinking mineral water.

I need not say any more… you get the idea.

But in 2004, 11 years ago, I decided that maybe I should turn those me, me, me, resolutions outward… and you know what… it worked!

It only took me half a century, but I “got it!”

My resolutions became a way of life. I decided I would become more tuned in to others. Not that I wasn’t a good kid to start with, but there’s always room for improvement. And not that I haven’t been taking care of myself; I’m just channeling my energies a lot better.

Humor is still the key ingredient in my life… and it’s good for me and the people I’m around.

And of course, on the heels of that also comes love, friendship, kindness, compassion, patience, giving and forgiving, and FUN! Ya’gotta’ have some fun!

So, as a writer, here’s how I look at it. 2015 is the first blank page of a 365 page book for you and for me. So make sure you write a good one. One with chapter after chapter filled with love, passion, friendship, kindness, service to others, compassion, patience, giving, and forgiving, and FUN! Ya’gotta’ have some fun!

The difference between an ordinary life and a joy-filled extraordinary life is like the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. Be the lightning!

Happy 2015, my friends!

Peace and love and all good things in the New Year…

See ya’ next month!

~Judy