Seems New Year's resolutions are always doomed for failure. Something about the demarkation between an old and new year temporarily infuses us with a sense of power, and we have these wild ideas that just because it's the New Year, our hopes, resolutions, and dreams have a better chance if we only commit to them NOW, on this singular day that is the first day of a new year.
So I don't do resolutions. But today I did find myself thinking about what is ahead in this new year. As a family we are struggling with much right now, enough said. Enough said because the details really don't matter and I know I'm far from alone. So many of us are struggling with this or that.
And while I don't get into the resolution part of a new year, I can't say that the demarkation between the old year and the new year leaves me untouched. So I thought it might be interesting to see what runs through the minds of my fellow kosacks on this day.
I'll start.
---I'm a former history teacher, so the lesson of a bird's eye view is not new to me. Still I find myself sometimes so involved in my activism, I cannot access that view. In this new year I wish to be able to acccess it even more often.
There is a sense of entitlement that we carry with us when we think no on has suffered more than we, no one has hit a brick wall and had to find out how to get past it, more than we. I do know I don't want to live with that sense of entitlement.
But I also want to figure out how to blow that wall down. This is how you spell conundrum---the delicate balance between humility and action.
---I'm a political and a news junky. That's who I am. So how to mitigate what that takes out of me? Thinking I need to read even more good books, and watch more good movies, and take more long walks and breath in the fresh air, and above all else, find my place in thankfulness.
---While I am a staunch and loyal member of this site, sometimes I click in and need to click out darn fast. I need more hope in my life, even if it's only in the small every day things I can garner by myself.
Reading the recommended list here sometimes is to want to slit your wrists, metaphorically. I NEED to find a place, not a site, but my own place, where I can both be active, thankful, and constructive.
BIG FLASHING NOTE: no criticism of those who write from their hearts every day here. Thankful for all the citizen journalists here, these things need to be said, and I'm glad they're said here. Still, some days I can hardly lift my activist heart off the ground for the reading of all of it. Hoping to get better at it in 2015.
AND, there is SO much that needs to be done, so many aching parts of this country and this world. So how not to become overwhelmed? How to still enjoy the life we are gifted with and be active in the change?
That's enough for my part, would really like to hear what y'all are thinking about how you will live the next year. Again noting, I don't consider these resolutions. Resolutions always blow up on me. But, thinking about a new year and wondering what y'all are thinking about it as well.
Because at my age, I know a new year is a great gift. I want to reciprocate. And I hope my next year will help me to do that.