I recently read another one of the books by one of my favorite authors, Jen Lancaster. The books was called The Tao of Martha. I knew this book would have something to do with Martha Stewart and while I have absolutely nothing against Martha I’m just not the ultra crafty, super organized, master chef and make it look easy kinda gal so I really didn’t think I’d like the book but it was one in the series and I didn’t want to miss some of the other parts of Jen’s story. I’m so glad I did. I’ll avoid spoilers by not going into to much details but one of the things Jen pointed out was her dog’s total and complete awesomeness. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of having a dog in your life as special as her Maisy you know what I mean. The bottom line was that Jen came to the conclusion that the “Tao of Maisy” was to “be awesome, give awesome, get awesome.”

It was such a simple and obvious concept but it really struck a cord with me. I’ve decided to make the Tao of Maisy my 2016 Tao. Not a new years resolution per se, just a tao – Be Awesome. That’s all. *tao: “the source and guiding principle of all reality” is the definition which I have chosen to apply here in case you were about to go look it up like I had to when I started the book.

This came about partly due to a lost friendship a few months ago. We were like a round and a square peg. She’s twice divorced. I’ve been married forever. She’s a retired teacher and I would rather chew off my own arm than teach in schools these days. She’s 20 years my senior. She’s left of center and I’m right. But somehow we just had the best time together – until we didn’t. She took offense to something I said (nevermind that she said about a gazillion things first to which I could have taken offense) but anyhoo that was that. At first I was hurt, upset how this would affect our mutual friends and generally saddened by the loss and then I turned the corned and realized I like me and I’m just not going to be upset because someone else doesn’t like me. Life is too short and too full of other stressors to let things like this bog you down. I can’t force people to like me and I can’t keep trying to turn myself inside out to be “likeable” to everyone. I am me. I like me. I am brutally honest. I am serious. I am funny. I am crazy and I am fun. I’m fierce and passionate and I’m good with that.

So this year I am going to be awesome. Awesome for ME, not for anyone else. 

**Note added later: Husband’s truck batter suddenly died on us so I tried to #beawesome this morning (New Years Day) when I suggested we hit Chick-fil-a for breakfast in route to the auto shop. Chick-fil-a was closed, for the holiday I guess. Not awesome, not awesome at all. This #beawesome thing might be more challenging than I thought. 😉