Painting a Masterpiece of Your Life

One way to make our lives into a beautiful masterpiece is by loving others.

As with every new year, I try to reflect on those things in my life that are working and those things that aren’t working so much. Then I think about how I might change some of my bad habits or as the last blog discussed, attitudes that aren’t quite up to par.

This year I’m thinking about how I might love more. I’m really a loving person, meaning I love people. I truly do, but I’m also a hermit. I could stay by myself for days and days and it wouldn’t bother me. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to be around people — well most people, anyway. It means that it’s my extremely introverted nature that I don’t have to be around others much of the time.

Funny story here, my mom told me that when I was an infant, I was the first baby on both sides for quite some time. So naturally, anytime people would come around, they wanted to pick me up and hold me. She said that she could swear that every time someone would finally put me back in my crib, that she could see the relief all over my face. I am not surprised at all by this. After all, infant Connie was still Connie, right?

But because I’m this way, sometimes the people I’m closest to don’t always feel just how much I do love them. It’s a flaw I want to work on.

The older I get, the more I realize just how important the people in my life truly are to me. I don’t want to take them for granted. Yet, I think it’s not just me. I think many of us do just that. Not intentionally, but we just don’t think about it. At least not until something happens and we’re worried that they aren’t okay, or maybe they get sick and we are so afraid of losing them.

I don’t want to wait for someone to get sick or die before I tell and show them how much I love them. And like I said, this doesn’t come naturally for me, and especially to those I’m closest to. Why that is, I’m not sure.

But this short post today just isn’t for me to spill the beans on my personal flaws. I want to get you thinking about something you need to work on for 2024. We always think of weight loss or working towards a goal that is more tangible. All these things are great too, but let’s not forget about those little intangible things that are really the big things. Things like, how do you treat others? Do you respect others? Do you let others know you care? Or maybe you have all of that down, but need to back off and go the other way a bit. Ask yourself, do you let others take advantage of you without setting boundaries? Are you a doormat waiting to be walked on? I’ve been there before, too!

Like a great unfinished painting, we are all works in process. I don’t know about you, but as I age, I want to become more vibrant and colorful than ever. I can only do that if I can freely show love for myself and love for others. And this is my intention for this year.

What can you work on in 2024 that will help to make your life more of a masterpiece?

Sending my best,

Connie