Taylor Swift Said 2017 Was A Great Year, And Maybe She’s Right

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People can kind of suck. I mean…I say that as a people-lover, people-pleaser, total people-person. But yeah, they can suck. People can be mean. They can be spiteful. They can really stick their noses into places where they don’t belong and just sneeze all over everything. And right now, they are seriously scorning Taylor Swift for…being happy? Being content? Being thankful? For sharing something positive on her Instagram page?

Taylor Swift is refusing to be beaten down and dragged down and put down by the massive crap-show that 2017 has handed us all in the way of news stories, political drama, and natural disasters?

Yes, we swore in a controversial president.

Yes, there is an ongoing nuclear crisis in North Korea. And a civil war in Syria. And problems with Russia.

Yes, Puerto Rico is still without power.

Yes, there was Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

Yes, there were wild fires in California.

Yes, there was an absolutely devastating mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Yes there were protests and riots and so much sexual harassment it could fill an Olympic-size  swimming pool.

Nobody would deny that 2017 came with a whole handful of heartbreak for us as a nation.

Nobody would deny that. I am pretty sure that even the Queen of Country/Pop/and now I guess Rap would admit that the year 2017 took her soul and crushed the living daylights out of it. That at certain times, 2017 made it hard to breathe.

That in the wake of certain tragedies, 2017 made it almost impossible to find the courage to get up and walk outside of our own front door. As a citizen of the United States of America.

But doesn’t Taylor have the right to be happy as a person? Doesn’t Taylor have the right to be grateful as an artist? Doesn’t Taylor have the right to draw a line in the sand separating the weight of the world from her own personal level of satisfaction and self-fulfillment?

I would have to argue that your heart can be heavy for the world, but your heart can also be  free to live a life of its own – in the world, hurt for the world, but not drowned by the tears of this world.

There will always be something happening around us that is worth crying for. Always. Whether it’s a racial war, or a hunger crisis, or a Commander in Chief with a Twitter problem.

There will always be something worth your depression, worth your cynicism, worth your grief. But joy is looking past the gloom and doom and dying flowers to see that there is also always something to smile for. Something to be thankful for. Some bit of green hope blossoming deep underneath the weeds.

There will always be bad – really bad – things that live outside of the small realm of stuff that we can control. Happiness is when we learn to let go of those things we can’t control, pray for the things we can’t force, hope for the things we can’t command, and buy our own magnifying glass, get on our hands and knees and search for what is beautiful.

Even if it is only a tiny grain of goodness. Even if it is only a minuscule molecule of merry. Even if it is only something as insignificant as a having the best-selling, most highly-anticipated album of the year.

Maybe we’d all have a little more gratitude for ourselves if we got our heads out of the woe-is-me, my-glass-is-half-empty gutter, and let people just be happy without all the judgement and criticism and bitter commentary.

Maybe we could all have a healthy piece of peaceful pie if we stopped looking over our condescending shoulder worrying about what everybody else was doing and saying and being. If we watered our own grass instead of peeking over the fence to spray poison on our neighbor’s lawn.

Maybe we could all just be a little more pleasant if we took that finger we are so eager to wave around at everyone else, and pointed it right back to us. If we started realizing that we are the ones piloting the plane of our own happiness.

Taylor Swift is going to do what Taylor Swift has always done. She’s going to be wildly successful, she’s going to sing to arenas of millions of adoring fans, she’s going to shake it off while the whole world looks on.

She’s going to let the writers and the critics and the judges keep hating, keep hurting, keep looking down on her with a giant smile on her face and a massive wad of cash in her designer cross-body bag.

Because she knows something the rest of us still have yet to learn: she is in charge of her own damn life. And her own damn happiness.

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I love red lipstick, graphic tees, and Diet Dr. Pepper a little more than I probably should. Most days you can find me lounging in sweatpants, running kids from one place to the other like a crazy person. My family is my home and my passion is helping women find courage, confidence, and the deep-rooted knowledge that their life has a deep and significant purpose. Find me on Facebook, or come join my FB group at In & Out Beauty by Amy.

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