A New Year

~2006. It sounds so futuristic to my raised-in-the-seventies mind, but here it is, like a stray dog that won't go home, but doesn't really belong.
I don't like resolutions, but I do like reflection...after all, if there is something in your life that shouldn't be there--why wait for a New Year to stop? And if something is worth doing, isn't it worth doing today? I think resolutions are mostly a set-up for failure producing more negative self-images, unfulfilled dreams and self-inflicted suffering. Maybe not.

Rather than set up some list of goals that may or may not happen, I prefer to simply make each day a glorious day, make better choices in each moment.

It's a New Year. A year for hope and joy, fulfillment and trials. Another year sifting through the annals of time has come to pass. Maybe this whole calender thing is a bit melodramatic, after all, the sun rose and set today just like any other day. I don't think the birds at my feeder care that we call this day 2006 instead of 2005. They're just getting seed, like they always do. Not a bad way to live really.

But because I'm human and I live in a country that uses the Gregorian calender, we call this the first day of the New Year. Because I've spent 36 years of a lifetime celebrating our calender's New Year I tend to reflect on what it all means and what I want for the coming year.

I want to travel to new places. I want to eat delicious food and drink good wine. I want to learn new things every day, veiw nature's beauty and see the wonder in every detail. I want to let joy wash over me, taking pleasure in each new day (because heck, I'm not six feet under pushing daisies yet!). I want to capture that lovely shine in my children's eyes, dance with them and connect with all my loved ones more deeply. I want to grow, reaching out to the world and my fellow travelers in this awesome journey called life. I want to find that still pool within my soul and dwell there even in the chaotic moments. I want to play music, hear music and listen closely to nature's music. I want to grow plants in my yard, feeling sun on my back, climb trees and meditate by a pond. I want to laugh often, love deeply, fear less, be silly more and share my gifts with the world.

All these things I want, are what I want for every day and I'm really glad I need no resolution to reach for that which is within me. I am living exactly the live of my choosing, I am where I'm meant to be and all is well.

As I grow and learn and develop as a human being this coming year, my truth can continue to reflect what really matters. Life is but a moment. A pause to the universes eternal march, a whisper of ethereal smoke across the vast deep.

Relationships, love, peace, joy---these are the eternal truths that can be mine each day. A life of passion, a life lived for this very moment, can claim these truths. I wish this for everyone.