Seize the Day

It's New Year's Eve, the day when people tend to pause and reflect on the outgoing year. Both television and newspapers are filled with the events of the year--headlines made, people who have died, tragedies, failures and successes.  That's what we do when something comes to an end, it seems, reflect.  What made history this year?  What did we accomplish? Where did we fail.  We pause, and then we pack the year up and move on--new year, new goals...hoping that somehow our lives will get better.

In years past I have done the "resolutions" thing, only to discover that an idea is doomed to failure once it receives this label.  If I really want to do something it will get done, with or without my resolving to do it.  The need to promise only indicates to me that it is not something I really want to do, or maybe I want to do it but am not yet ready to commit to the process of accomplishing it.  Yes, for me, resolutions are things that I feel I should be doing--not things that I want to do.  Good, old fashioned guilt--that's from where these vows arise.

So, I'm not making any resolutions this year.  True, I have goals, hopes, dreams.  I'd like to return to playing my guitar and piano on a regular basis.  I hope to get back to painting and I'd like to check out photography as an art form. And of course, I desire to keep writing.  Maybe this year is the one in which I'll write my novel.  I don't want to disappoint Frank, after all.  But, that being said, I realize how my novel writing may come from someone else's expectations and hopes...perhaps not yet my own. Still, writing a novel is something I will keep on my bucket list.  

Bucket list!  That reminds me...I'll go back to my list this year and see what things can be accomplished.  Maybe, with the new year, my list will be revised.  I'm getting older, after all, and the last few days I have been feeling it.  My joints are stiff; my bones rattle and crack.The aches and pains that come with cold, damp winter days remind me of my own mortality.   

If I were to make a resolution it would be to do the things I long to do, the things that are life-giving and joy producing.  Joy is contagious, so why not treat the world to this gift?  I will choose to live my life more authentically, creating an inner joy that I hope will spread.   If not now, when?   "Carpe diem!"