Do good work...

I heard something today that helped me put some things into perspective. I was at a workshop on "aging well." The topics were focused on how to make the second half of life more meaningful.  I wished for it to be better than it was....but, there were a few nuggets I'll share.

The first was a sentence in a section about facing mortality.  The speaker focused on the things we might want to communicate to others about how we want to die, the things we might want to do before we die, and the things we fear about death.  On one slide she had a list of several things we could accomplish before our deaths.  One of them was "Do good work towards letting go of resentments."  She went through the list quickly, not spending much time on any one item, but those words stood out "do good work."

I sometimes struggle with the somewhat contradictory admonishments to not be so hard on myself and to face up to my flaws.  I seem to vacillate between extremes, be harder on myself, be gentler on myself...what is the right balance?  Thinking about it in terms of "doing good work" helps a bit.  I can't expect perfection, can't expect I'll always get it right, but I can expect myself to "do good work."  It reflects a balance between thinking nothing is my fault and everything is my fault.