I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.
~Anaïs Nin
Every year I seem to go against the flow when it comes to New Years. It seems as though the vast majority of people put such high expectations on the upcoming year – they giddily anticipate greatness and make sweeping, unrealistic changes and expect them to stick. And I can’t subscribe to the idea that Jan 1st is fundamentally different than Dec 31st.
Part of it comes down to how my life began. My parents would often talk about the circumstances surrounding my birth. I was born 2 months early and the doctors told my Dad not to see me, as I wouldn’t survive. With that knowledge, even as a little girl, I felt like I needed to make every day matter. When you feel like every breath you take is a bonus, it changes the intensity with which you live. I’m one of those people that seems like she was just born old and I think that’s why.
I narrowly missed another toe-to-toe with death in 1992 when I was hit by a drunk driver. I remember being up all night in the hospital, being pummelled over and over by the persistent “why’s”. Every inch of that car was obliterated except where I was sitting, so why was I still here? I felt like, once again, I was living on time I never should have had.
Add to that just arriving home from a country plagued by devastating issues, and I suspect that is why I’m crotchety this year about January resolutions. In Malawi, children are trafficked. Gas shortages are rampant. Maize prices have gone down and the rains aren’t coming to help germinate this year’s crop. Billboards in Lilongwe trumpet statistics about child wasting. So I’m struck by how this idea of a new year being better and different because of our own choices is a western luxury. I can’t stop thinking about how our resolve to eat less, exercise more or cut up our credit cards is such an extravagance.
I can’t be a huge proponent of the idea that every year we can start again with a magical life reboot every January 1st. I don’t understand how we can expect a new year’s resolution to succeed if we didn’t care enough about it to do it in December, November and October too. Every day is a new start and so is every minute and every hour. My life experiences have made me long to live a live of character, balance and honesty in every moment, not when we reach a pretty square on the calendar.
I’m not saying don’t bother to change. I’m not saying to avoid bettering yourself. But I’m saying that is just as effectively done in March, July and September. The world needs action today and every day. Live your convictions 12 months of the year and you can avoid the mid January wave of disappointment when well-intentioned resolutions fizzle out. Resolve to make what motivates you evident in your life year round. And keep the needs and wants in life in sharp perspective.
Wow! You have to write a book! The way you express yourself, your passion and clarity. You speak volumes for many others, I am sure! You do for me any way, but I could not express it so well.
Since returning from Africa I am even more aware of our Global footprint, commercialism and waste. I have always been very frugal, recycle and reuse but this year I told my husband I didn’t want anything for Christmas. I don’t need anything! We draw names with my family and I spread the word that next year I want a goat or what ever $ 75.00 ( our limit) will buy for Africa.
I started drying the seeds from fruit and vegetables that I buy to plant next year so I don’t have to buy them.
We too had a quiet New Year and I think daily how I can reduce any harm I may cause our world and what good I can do for it.
Reading your blog is one way I get something back for all I do, as what goes around, comes around.
Thank you!
Happy Today!