What Would Jane Do?

It's January 7th. One week into our new year. How are you doing with your resolutions? C'mon, you can be honest. This is a safe space. They say it takes 21 days to make something a habit, so we're a third of the way there!

This year, I decided not to make any official resolutions. I didn't make a list saying that I wanted to work out three times a week, write 1000 words a day (which is not really as much as it seems...actually, it's about the length of your average blog post, or a page and a half on a Google Doc). I've done that a lot of years, and that just never works for me.

As you might have read (or might not have read) in my first post of the year, I wrote about living intentionally. That is my resolution, essentially, for the year. And one of my Christmas gifts is helping me to do that.

Friends, family, if you are on Pinterest, I highly recommend that you make a board for yourself of gift ideas. It's an easy way to bring things to people's attention that you wouldn't necessarily buy for yourself. My siblings used mine this year (my board is called Retail Therapy, just in case you ever need to know that...just throwing it out there). I got some amazingly Kaitlin-esque gifts, which I will highlight in a later post, but I had to bring this one in now.

I mean, could this be any more perfect? The entire book is filled with quotes from her novels and letters, and there are some absolutely delicious category names (don't worry, we will be exploring them throughout this year), and the very first category fit perfectly with my "New Year's Resolution":  How to be Happier than you Deserve.

It gets better. The first quote is from one of her letters, and just completely showcases the wit of this fabulous authoress:  Next week, I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend. Am I the only one who finds this just delightful? Really? Just me? Okay, moving on.

The quote on which I wanted to focus for this post is on the next page of that book. It comes from the very first Jane Austen novel I read (beyond the Great Illustrated Classics version of Pride and Prejudice I enjoyed as a fourth grader). Sense and Sensibility will always have a special place in my heart, not just because it was my first, but also because I identified greatly with the basic story. Sense and Sensibility tells the story of two very different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who love each other very much, despite how different they are. Their relationship reminded me a lot of my relationship with my sister. If you  have a sister, or enjoy good literature, I highly recommend you check it out. Literally. Get a library card. Or borrow my copy...just kidding. I don't lend my babies out to people they don't know. Are you  nuts? (I might be, after that previous sentence...or maybe just sleep deprived...)

The quote from this book actually comes from one of the men in the story, the enigmatic Edward Ferrars: 

                   I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; 

                  but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.

I think this directly sums up how I feel about this year. I want to be happy (perfectly happy would be ideal, but I'd take just plain old happy, too), but I have to do it my way. Just because my way isn't all that exciting doesn't make it wrong. And this goes for all of you, too, especially as you struggle (or don't struggle, those of you with incredible drive and willpower) to keep your resolutions--you must do what makes you happy, not everyone else. If we all just lived our lives in a way that made us happy and stopped telling others how they should live theirs, that abstract goal of world peace might just be achieved. Or at least individual, maybe even familial, peace. Remember, serenity now! (Just keep saying it until it's true).

That being said, don't do dangerous things just because they "make you happy." You only get one body and one life. Don't abuse it.

~Stay Gold!