Enough Is

And always was

There are only a couple of days left in the year we call 2025. For the skeptical, we have many days of regret and very few remaining to balance the scales. Of course, the overly optimistic among us just might convince themselves to expend a Herculean effort, because it is never too late.

Or, perhaps, the healthiest response is to reflect on the good, the bad, and the things that just were and realize that the effort we put into living for the past revolution around the sun was enough.

Because enough is.

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I live and breathe in a world where I expect miracles of my own making, even while I reflect on my own ineffectiveness, limited reserves of energy, and willpower to be that miracle worker. This time I will get it right. This time it will all be completed. This time it will be perfect.

But it often isn’t. It rarely is. And perfection is as elusive as it ever was.

Careful reflection on the year that was is usually how I come to the realization, over and over again, that enough is.

We were unable to follow the crop plan as I drew it up for 2025 and we had some crop failures - just as we always do. But our freezer is full, we’ve sold some of the produce, gifted some of it and donated the rest. For a couple of people who have other full-time jobs, we did okay. It was enough.

Speaking of those jobs, Tammy and I both hold positions that can (and do) grow far beyond what either of us can manage to do, but we still try to do it all. Some things didn’t go as well as we thought they should and other items on our lists are still just that - items on a list. Yet the evidence is there that each of us made a difference in our professional capacities. It was enough.

There were plans to make repairs and changes to the farm and the farm house in 2025. We vowed once again to try to do better at reaching out to friends and family on a regular basis. We told ourselves we’d get out and take more walks in the woods and do a better job balancing our desk work with activity. We committed ourselves to making a difference in our local, state, federal and global communities. We did each of these, but we didn’t do them. Once again, things didn’t go how we drew them up in our minds and we didn’t reach the heights of our dreams. We fell short in so many ways, but we did something.

Something was enough.

The end of the year is a chance to allow yourself to be amazed by what you actually did accomplish, even if it isn’t exactly what you envisioned in your perfect world scenario. Even if you aren’t amazed, do your best to push any disappointment you are tempted to feel. It’s time to accept the reality of what was and glean the positives that were.

And are.

I hope that you can also reflect and give yourself the gift of recognition of the good things that you have done and the valuable person that you have been. Discard your need for comparison to the perfect dream of what you think should have been 2025. What you did this past year was enough.