I don’t commit to resolutions. I’m lousy at it. When I try for something easy…well it’s just too easy. When it’s something hard, I can talk my way out of it by the end of January. Like Lent, resolutions are a promise; a promise to either to ‘give up’ or, do something good…[in my day, it was give up–usually candy], and by God, if you couldn’t sacrifice or be kind for forty days your soul was in deep sneakers. Forty days versus three HUNDRED and sixty five! Yeah, Lent was doable.
I’ve tried to think of New Year’s resolutions as a promise to me. But that didn’t really work. The one person to whom I can rationalize just about any personal behavior is myself. Try it on my mom, or my sister, sheeze, no way. But me? I’m a sucker for believing my own arguments.
When I got my first apartment in Santa Monica I thought that the perfect Art above the fireplace would be a beautifully framed white board where I could write a quote that meant something to me that day, week, or month. Something that would add to my self knowledge. And there were several. And I have my favorites.
Hammarskjöld’s ‘Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.’
Or Euripides, ‘Enough is abundance to the wise.’
Or, Solon, ‘Call no man happy until he is dead.’
About fifteen or or so years ago, the eldest suggested that a focus on a word, just one word. That word would be front and center of your whole being for the entire year. And the idea has stayed with me since then.
There is one word is so huge to me, so full of everything that is good and great that I would have it on my white board all year. Hope.
Hope for a peaceful nation. Hope for an end to violence both here and overseas. Hope for Christmas blessings on everyone I know and love throughout the year. Hope to those who are distraught or dealing with the distraught. Hope to remain purposeful. Hope for grace in the day to day. Hope to not lose hope.
As life has become more complicated, more frightful and more uncertain I Hope for a peaceful soul.