Blogging is one of those things that I enjoy so much, I always leave it for last, like I always eat my broccoli first and save the potatoes for last. The result is that it often doesn’t get done. I’ll try to bump it up in the queue for 2018.

What respite do I have to offer for the first day of the New Year?

Here it is…are you ready?

Life is terrific, and you are an essential part of it.

Don’t start with me. Don’t say everyone’s else’s life is terrific, but mine sucks. Don’t say life is terrible, and then you die. Don’t say I don’t understand.

Because you’re like, wrong.

Beth’s Philosophy of Life:  All of creation is a puzzle. Every single piece must be in place for the picture to be complete. Every tree, every flower, every bug, every cloud, and–yes–every person. That includes you, hot shot. If you aren’t in your place, everybody is looking for the missing piece to make the picture complete. It doesn’t matter if you are the Queen of England, or Tom Hanks, or a butcher in Brooklyn, or a retiree in Florida, or a parapro in Suwanee, Georgia-you have a very important place. As my old buddy, Dr. Seuss, says in Happy Birthday to You!: Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is You-er than you.

And what about that picture? It is–wow!–crazy beautiful, and unimaginably cool. I could never have made it up, in spite of my overactive imagination. The clear winter sky; spectacular Christmas decorations; a soft pink camellia blooming in December; great cup of coffee; a day off with a Harry Potter marathon on HBO–fill in the blanks for yourself.

That is the respite I have to offer you today. Whoever you are, whatever you are doing (or not doing), you are an essential part of the picture of Life, and it is a very beautiful picture indeed. You are a very important person to all of us, and I am so thankful you are here to fill your spot.

Happy, Happy New Year!