It all seems rather arbitrary to say today is a new start, tomorrow is the 2nd day, and so on. Every day is a new day, “the first day of the rest of your life,” and all that. Right? And yet here we are, all of us, looking at this new year full of hopes and intentions and goals and resolutions. The rhythms of the year, of the holidays, of the seasons lend themselves to this. We have passed through the long night of solstice, celebrated festive holidays of lights, spent time with friends and family, and taken the opportunity (hopefully) to decompress from the past year’s daily grind (and the stresses of the holidays). So yes, it’s arbitrary to say, Today starts the new thing. But there it is on the calendar. And it seems like as good a time as any to reassess, refocus, resolve and start afresh. Which gets me to resolutions. I’ve been kind of noodling on a blog post about this thing we do to ourselves—building up our superegos to compel ourselves to do better, to be better—so maybe some further thoughts on this will go up on my other blog. Meanwhile, on a thread on Goodreads about New Year’s resolutions, I added my own:
[M]y intention is to practice love of the things I want to be doing. I want to write more, so I will practice loving writing. I know, this all sounds very Buddhist (and maybe it is), but I know that cracking an improved whip on my guilt and conscience doesn’t work for me in the end.
And that just about sums it up. Now I think I’ll get on with embracing my love, and see see what this year brings.