A
week into the new year
by Julie Carter
We
are here again – working our way into a new year with new numbers. As for all
that other new -- new opportunities, new
hope, new excitement. I surmise it’s the same as it was a month ago, we are
just now taking time to revive and review it.
It
is traditionally a time when many re-evaluate their lives, make resolutions and
look
with
great hope to the months ahead. “This will be my year,” we say. Experience says
we humans don't usually keep those promises that we make to ourselves and “my
year” becomes “maybe next year.”
I’d
bet that after the first three days of January, the falling away from
self-imposed “goals” happens in an avalanche manner. Some of us have gotten
wise enough to know it takes more than a new calendar to make a difference in
our lives.
Personally,
I've learned to circumvent that disappointment in myself by not making any
resolutions that aren't already part of my character. You know, those things
like breathing, sleeping, eating. I promise to do all those things this year
and every year I get the chance.
I
will admit to taking a bit of time to think about what I should do for my
health, wealth,
happiness
and the greater good of mankind. It can be an exhausting process due to the
length of the mental journey required using limited resources. And most of the
time, it’s a walk in a circle.
Firewood
splinters, fireplace ash dust everywhere on everything and a perpetual
lingering
smell of cedar smoke mark the season. As does lowering mercury on the
thermometer and full time gazing at the weather reports that more often than
not, mean absolutely nothing.
With
cold, sometimes snow and gloomy skies dominating the weather surrounding many
of us, we handle it by eagerly anticipating the wonders of the spring season
that is surely just around the corner. We welcome the death of flies and mosquitoes
in the cold of December and one day later we are yearning for spring flowers
and green grass.
A wise old fellow once told me that in all his
90-some years, he had seen changes come and go but that there were some things
that never changed. “The way the sun
rises and the way the sun sets. That has not changed one bit,” he said.
I believe we can decide to be tired of wandering, stand
up and be counted when new beginnings are passed around. We live in a world
long past understanding what is foundationally important in life. Gone are the
days when people worked back-breaking hard to just survive and didn’t have time
to fuss over things that had no value in the survival scheme. They went to bed
tired and woke in the morning thinking they were blessed.
In
that same world of today, we expect much and offer little. Disasters have a way
of leveling the playing field. Fires, flood, blizzards and more have rolled
over civilization with no regard to rank or social standing. We’ve seen that
happen repeatedly.
This
country and its people are being tested, one test at a time. We are being put
in a place to choose between fluff and value with the ability to do that buried
somewhere deep within us.
We
are two generations away from any learned survival skills for the really tough
stuff. Our hardest decisions usually revolve around satellite or cable, butter
or margarine, and finding the gas station with the cheapest fuel. And making
sure no one hurts our feelings.
It
is said that the three essentials for happiness are something to do, something
to love and something to hope for. My promise to myself is the same as it was
in prior years. I resolve to be happy, laugh more and try to infect every
person I meet with the same.
Remember your past wildernesses, but don’t let
them predict your future. And let us not forget that tomorrow is never
promised.
Julie can be reached
for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com
Julie, color me infected and Thank You for another year of your wonderful columns.
Julie, color me infected and Thank You for another year of your wonderful columns.
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