Beverly Beckham on Carmen Herrerra

Beverly Beckham has a great column in today's Globe about Carmen Herrerra, the 94-year-old recently "discovered" painter who has been working at her art for the last 50 years, and the lesson of her life and work as we enter the new year.

Do what you love. That’s the message here. Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Find one person you trust. And no matter what, do not give up.

It’s an important message to carry into the new year, because New Year’s is fixated on goals and achievements and change, on self improvement and success and being neater and more organized and patient and forcing yourself to do all the things you don’t love, like running a mile, or a half mile, or giving up being an artist for a real job. New Year’s, in our world, is definitely not about hanging in and hanging on, doing a job over and over and making slow progress or no progress at all.

That is not how we roll.

But maybe we should.

Thank you Beverly, and Carmen.