This is the time of the year when our minds considers the infinite realms of resolutions and intentions.
It is great to sit down and envision a better self as well as a better world. Will we read more books? Listen to more diverse music? Exercise some more or exercise at all? Eat more wholesome food? Be kinder to our spouse? Lose some weight? so many possibilities. Endless thoughts enter and exit our minds. The year that looms ahead is full of promises, but stays like a book, closed to our vision. Inscrutable, a blank book filled with the lusciousness of the unknown and the invite of our best resolutions and intentions.
Some of them we keep alive and struggle to make happen. But many are abandoned like field flowers on the wayside of our path. So many years become a repetition of the one past and our many resolutions and intentions live only in our minds and we feel remorse and guilt for all the forgotten possibilities we had planned for the future.
Along the years, I have learned not to make drastic changes. Maybe turn my thoughts a little bit one way and my vision a little bit the other way, open my feelings more, consider what I can do in my own mind. Like a fisherman, cast my bait and wait with not too much expectation but just the joy of the moment. It could mean unexpected changes, but it could simply mean the continuation of a line of thoughts and inner doings that I extend to the next year.
Some things are here to stay. Bills will come, we will pay our taxes, summer will happen and the earth will spring flowers on our door steps. Children will be born and some of us will die.
The planet will continue its revolutions around the sun and the cycle of the seasons will come again to fit our preferences.
In other words, life will go on as we know it. So what will change with the new year? Maybe nothing, maybe a lot. An earthquake could happen anytime, a revolution, a war, a huge hike in our insurance, a fallout with our best friend or the pleasure of knowing someone new and discovering a new land. How much is due to our resolutions and intentions? maybe nothing, maybe a lot and maybe it is not due to our resolutions but to the ones of those in power and the simple movements of the earth. And also to the changes in the other people psyche, something that we have no power on.
Personally what do I want? more time to write, more time to create, more pen &and ink drawings, more time with my loved ones, maybe a neat trip to Europe or a trip around the states that I have not visited, more and more people to read this blog, and much more of my own inner life. Being in touch with my own feelings, my guidance and the world surrounding me would be an added bonus.
I wonder how much of this will materialize...I know that work will intrude and take me away, that life will interfere one way or the other. But maybe as everyone else, some of my desires will go ahead with the force of a running champion and show me that indeed, my dreams can happen. It is good to let go and envision a life where my desires are met.
Everyone could be thinking the same things and all our desires merge in the collective unconscious to create a strange global soup that eventually is here to confront us. It makes me laugh. Everyone has an intention, and many of our intentions collide!
But it is good to let go and imagine as John Lennon did, a better world, a better year when we thrive and blossom, when our intentions and resolutions line up with some fabulous world happening and we can smile knowing that the year ahead is what we all wanted.
Here are some ways to wrap the year nearly past and learn from all its happenings.
Ask yourself these questions, alone or with some trusted friends.
How was this year? Get an overall view of the year.
What did I not like?
What did I learn?
What did I enjoy the most?
Happy regrouping!
Copyright Dec 2010, Micheline Brierre
It's ironic that you mentioned John Lennon when speaking of imagining a different life. He also said, "Life is what happens when you've made other plans." The Universe already has a plan for us--no matter what we have vocalized or written as our plan for the new year. Our job is to LIVE THAT LIFE TO THE FULLEST!
ReplyDeleteThe best part of the close of one year and the begining of a new one is that we can choose to reinvent everything about ourselves. We can change course, make new friends, take on a new job, begin a new hobby, finish all our unfinished projects, become more healthy and take up a new exercise routine. The possibilities are as endless as our imagination. There's that word again.
I'm quite enthused about traveling down different paths. Fortunately I have already made inroads toward my resolutions and have established some new patterns. Hopefully these patterns will make my resolutions more REAL!
Naturally I wanted to become more healthy. I see some fabulous positive changes in my body already from making better food choices. If this RAIN will ever stop--I want to boost my walking campaign.
I've wanted to find ways to help others in need. On Christams Day I took a plate of homemade Christmas dinner to someone who was alone and stayed to visit. It sure made my day. Today actually I'm going to become a chauffeur for a lady who no longer drives. We will go get an ex-ray of her bruised ribs (from a fall on a tile floor) and pay a visit to a local dentist office.
I did something surprising the other day. In the past I enjoyed a much shorter hairstyle and it has been ages since I've had that "look". This look made me quite happy. Well--I took scissors in hand and whacked my shoulder length hair OFF into a "bob". It is a kick to take on this new persona and it must be showing. Yesterday while out I noticed all sorts of people saying hello--complete strangers. It was much FUN. And, of course it was because of the short "DO" and the smile on my face. I felt like a celebrity.
Anyway, you catch my drift? The trick to making resolutions stick is to begin them early and put them into practice. Once they become a habit, one can't help but be a success. Happy trails to you!
A good post and it made me think about the only New Year's resolution I ever made and kept. Perhaps because it was a positive one instead of "don't smoke, lose weight, etc. After the New Year's celebration that year I actually signed myself up for the weekly music camp and found that I loved it. A challenge, but I became very interested in practicing my flute and taking better advantage of my lessons and it's continued being a very nice part of my life. I'm not going to give this up for a long, long time.
ReplyDeleteKnitting lessons weren't the result of a resolution but something I always thought would be neat to learn to do. So glad I took a class with Beth at Green Valley. The rest is history. Both this and the music have been like opening many doors towards meeting many interesting and fun people. This, of course, includes you.
Love,
Diana
Dear Micheline,
ReplyDeleteMy only resolution is to stay as stress free as possible. Stress affect your life and your health in so many negative ways, so I really have to stay away from stressful situation or diet or whatever else present itself, the rest will follow smoothly.
Since I already started that resolution, I've been doing pretty good, so it confirms to me that I'm in the right direction, one day at the time.
Love Micheline in LC
P.S. always love your blog, it's soothing as you read it.
The age of wisdom. Of course, not everyone acquires wisdom with age but the hard knocks and successes in life do manage to teach us much. As you rightly say and infer, the world will keep on turning with or without us and aside from the natural and man inflicted disasters nothing much will change. We will continue in our desire to lose weight but the sumptuous foods and goodies that delight us so will not allow it. And so, wisely, you conclude that rather than resolve to make drastic changes, you will opt for mild changes in directions. Good!
ReplyDeleteCharlie
Hi Michou,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your blog. Your thoughts on intentions and resolutions are so well presented... I do wish you and your loved ones a wonderful year. May your dreams become reality.
Love,
Gerda
Dear Micheline - I love the New Year, especially the "week between years" - the last week of December, after the Christmas celebration.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reflecting on that which is past, and that which has not yet come - always a time of possibility! What will the new year bring, and who will I be this year, who will I meet, what adventures await?
Love Laura