A New Years to remember

As this year draws to a close and the new year is set to begin, it's long been customary for people to take a little time to reflect on the events of the past year, and consider their hopes for the year ahead. It's a time for people to stand back and take a look at their lives, their work, their families, their friends; what they've accomplished, what they did right and what they did wrong, and what they'd change if they could.

It's also a time when people consider ways to improve themselves by setting personal goals for the future, something they call a New Years Resolution. That's just a fancy term which simply means: a set of promises people make to themselves. Promises such as trying to lose a little excess weight, getting rid of a bad habit or two, or getting themselves a bit more organized. Not exactly what you might consider lofty goals, but practical nonetheless.

The more I hear about these here resolutions, the more it all seems to makes sense.
We all could do with a little self-improvement.


So for the past couple of days I've thought long and hard about whether or not I should come up with some new year's resolutions of my own. Since this has been only my first year of life I have little to compare myself to. My life is relatively simple and I don't have much to complain about. As far as I know, I don't have any real problems or bad habits to speak of, and I have little reason to think the future will bring me anything more then I need or less then I want, but yet I still feel this need to self-examine.
Surely there are things about myself I could change for the better, I'm certainly not perfect, no dog is.

I have my strong points, as well as my not-so-strong points, although I have yet to figured out the difference. I'm sure there are things I could do around the house to make myself more useful, such as picking up my toys and putting them back in the box after I'm through with them.

No, wait......On second thought, no self-respecting dog in his right mind would do that. There's no need to get crazy. They don't expect too much from me to begin with, so there's no point in setting the bar too high. Besides, cleaning up after dogs is human's work, everyone knows that.
It makes them feel useful.

So let's think about this a bit. What kind of new years resolutions could a dog aspire to. The lives of humans and dogs couldn't be more different.
Humans need to work; dogs need to take naps. - Humans have bills to pay; dogs have games to play, - Humans like to watch TV; dogs like to bark at humans watching TV.
We drag our toys all over the house; they pick them up. - We poop in the yard; they have to clean it up.

As far as I can see, none of these things look like a problem to me. What kind of new years resolutions can I possibly come up with to improve my simple life.

Take more naps, play more, have more fun.

I would do those things anyway. Come to think of it, I have no real problems to speak of at all. It's not like I have to give up smoking, or cut back on my drinking. I don't have a weight problem, I only weigh 43 pounds. My hair's not falling out and I don't have closets full of junk to get organized, and God knows I don't have any kind of sexual issues to deal with, I was neutered last spring.

So what is it that I'm trying to do here anyway, looking for things in my life to change, when in fact, changes may not even be necessary.

Now that I look at it, this whole business of making resolutions might be completely lost on me. It's kind of like a solution looking for a problem.

Wow, It seemed like such a good idea at first glance but it's got me thinking, if it's not broken, maybe I best not think about fixing it.

The truth is, there's nothing about me that needs to change.
It could be, I'm just as perfect as I need to be.

My life is as happy as it is simple, and I want for nothing.
What could finer then that.

I'm actually starting to think that you people are the ones I should be feeling sorry for. You're the ones with the complicated lives. Compared to you people, we pretty much have it made.
Oh sure, dogs don't have bills to pay, but we also don't have jobs.

So, I guess I can just forget about all that self improvement business altogether and just concentrate on having a good time this New Years eve.

What the heck was I thinking anyway!

Maybe I'll stay up late and watch that big bumpy ball drop on TV. That sounds like it would be real interesting.

But then again, maybe I'll just find myself a nice warm spot to curl up in and get some sleep.

Either way it will be a New Years to remember.

Happy New Years to all.

Love Reilly ...