photo: feather by Yolanda Kauffman
The
threshold of a New Year naturally invites reflection and anticipation. We
reflect on the swift passing of one year with its varied layers, and we
anticipate all that is yet to come.
In
the past I've joined many people, and perhaps you, too, in making New Year’s
resolutions. Sometimes the resolutions were practical: “I will get physical
exercise at least four times each week.” In other years, they were more
introspective and intangible: “I will be more patient with interruptions, more
open to spontaneous opportunities.”
It's
one thing to make a resolution, and it's another thing entirely to follow
through on it! Only rarely has my follow-through lasted an entire year. More
often than not, if you met up with me in July and asked how my resolutions were
going I would've been hard pressed to even remember them clearly.
I've
observed over time that my resolutions often contain a degree of judgment directed
toward myself or the world around me. Resolutions typically include an
assumption that what is, right now, is not okay; it is lacking in some way.
Therefore, I must work to change it (my fitness level, my impatience, etc.). This means I approach a resolution as an act of will. It is
up to me to buckle down and see it through. If I don’t then I've failed
in some way, and I have only myself to blame.
The
root of the word resolution literally means “reducing things to simpler
forms.” It has also grown to mean finding the answers, or “taking the bull by
the horns.” It means I often reduce my world down to me.
There
is a place and time in this life for such individual resolve. However, I've
found that the most creative changes in life have not come through my own
willful resolutions or my efforts to take control. The most meaningful
transformation has come more in the moments that required me to release my
grip, to let go of my own willfulness, and to live from a place of openness,
vulnerability, and deeper trust.
True
and lasting change in this life comes when we are willing to start right where
we are, without first wishing life to
be any different than it actually is. This is where Love meets us. Love has the
power to work only through what is true and real. So, on the cusp of this New
Year, with all that has been and all that yet may be, may we be right here,
right now, with one another, and with the Great Love that has the power to
transform all things.
