Well who would have thunk it? 2015 has come and gone. For some of you I am sure you are glad that's happened. There were probably some unplanned events that stretched you mentally and physically. For others of you, 2015 may be thought of as a good year. Maybe there was the birth of a child, a new job, or other significant event which made the past year one of great note. But whatever your thoughts on 2015, it is now gone, replaced by a New Year.
I guess in some ways, a new year is always a time to reflect back. We look at our accomplishments and failures for the past year and then try to learn from these experiences. Some people make great New Year's resolutions. How often we have heard people say that once the New Year comes they will lose weight or quit smoking? And how often do we know that just as soon as people make those promises, they break those same promises. For some New Years is that fresh start that they have been looking for, a time when they can wipe out the past and start afresh. For some the promise of a New Year has been a way to procrastinate- "I will give up watching soap operas in the New Year" rather than giving up watching them now. But now the New Year has come- the self imposed deadline has arrived, the bell has tolled- are you going to live up to that promise or put it off once again?
I have never been a huge fan of New Years. To me it has always been the weaker book end of the Christmas season. I have always seen New Years as a day not much different than any other day. Oh it is nice that it is a holiday and it is always just one week after Christmas, but other than that, it is nothing special. I have never seriously made New Year's resolutions (except the same one I make each year of not eating brussel sprouts- a promise I have kept for these 52 and a half years). I have never seriously made resolutions because I don't see why things are different just because I have to put a 6 at the end of the dateline of my cheques now rather than a 5. No I realised long ago, that if I want to change things about myself I need to be ready to make those changes and I need to do it when I am ready- not just because I have changed the calendar from pretty puppies to cute little kittens.
I don't make New Year's resolutions. I am far from perfect but I am not going to have some calendar tell me what to do. I think our world would be a happier place if people dealt with issues that bother them here and now rather than wait until some set, arbitrary date. And I think some people need to take baby steps. Some people unfortunately have to accept that they cannot make some permanent changes. I am not sure what issues I will be able to deal with tomorrow but I know that today I am prepared to deal with "X", "Y" and "Z". I might gorge myself on chocolate tomorrow, but I think today I can abstain. However, I am still quite sure that by tomorrow's end I will have avoided brussel sprouts. May it be so. Blessings.
