Our awareness of time changes over our lifetime. I knew when I was 20 that few people make it to their 100 year birthday but since it had taken me a lifetime to get to 20, I could not envision how quickly more of those 20 years could pass. I get it now.

I'm aware of what is infinite and what is finite.

Milestones come and go - the New Year for instance, a grandchild graduating. We make lists of things to do, some as simple as a grocery list, while others contemplate their bucket list. How often do we focus on a list and note whether or not we have our life list in order?

What have we done - or not done - on our highest priority list? Finishing my book is still on my list, and that book is all but complete. When will I write The End? Dare I ask, Will I?

Regardless of what we wish to change, we can.
Isn't that really, truly the best news ever?

I get such satisfaction getting a room organized and arranged just right - or close enough to just right to consider it done. Will I tackle my home office until it too is just right? Yes, I need a secretary at home, but I don't have one. I don't expect to have one. It's me.

Step one in so much of life is to recognize what is and what is not. Taking that further we can recognize what will always be and what will never be.

Step two involves making decisions on what we discover in step one. Many of us identify step one at this time of year and recognize that we are not thin or educated or sober and, furthermore, will never be thin or educated or sober by simply thinking about it. We then take step two and start exercising or enroll in school or stop drinking or even all of the above.

We recognize that the key to absolutely everything in life is in our own hands.

Oh how hard we work to make our problems be someone else's fault. They never are because the common denominator is that person in the mirror. I've known or known about people who have overcome unbelievable obstacles to have a joyful life. We all have.

Regardless of what we wish to change, we can. Isn't that really, truly the best news ever? What if we were totally dependent on someone else to change our lives? How much better it is to be in charge of ourselves. Who shall we be? Heady stuff.

Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.