2015

Let me be the hundred thousandth person to wish you all a happy new year.  If you are active on social media, add another 500,000 to that, give or take 34,356.

Try as I might to think about years and cycles in the manner of my ancestors, it is hard for me to divorce myself from the simple power of the collective belief in this calendar as being the source for our marking the passage of one year into another.  Ultimately, I would much rather think of the past 365 days or so as “The cycle of [Insert important cultural achievement or event here please]” than as “2014” but since so few people do that and I’ll actually have to think out what was important culturally about our last year among all of the things that happened, 2014 will have to suffice for now.

We’ve all heard people making “New Year’s resolutions” and to those that do, perhaps that is of significant value.  I tend to see each moment as a new beginning, every second is a chance to start over, to change ourselves, to make a resolution to change and learn.  Of course, this is relatively common wisdom insofar as that type of things goes.  There is a value to girding yourself for changes though.  Knowing that the new year is about to begin (or in this case, has begun) gives us a chance to think upon the things we wish to change and gives us a target date to prepare us for those changes.

So, in keeping with age old tradition, I want to share with you all some of the resolutions I have set for myself for the coming calendar year because, well, I already feel guilty about not writing a post for last Saturday.

1.)  Writing here once a week.  I’m a writer.  I’m a decent talker too but writing is my passion even in the times I wonder whether I am actually as good at it as I would like to be; something that can only improve with practice.

2.)  Devote more time to Nature.  I could do more.  I sometimes let comfort dictate my movement (Nature is a blood rite and Mosquitoes make certain of it!) so I need to just let go of some of those expectations of comfort and just be.  I need to meditate in the cold, I need to burrow into the mud more.  I need to get my clothes dirty and in need of heavy laundering.

3.)  Devote more time to my wife.  We have schedules that sometimes prevent us from being with each other as much as we want.  Holding space for this relationship is very important to both of us.  Even just making the effort to sit down for 30 minutes and talk can sometimes be difficult but she is my best friend, my most trusted confidant.  No matter how much I do, she still deserves more time.

4.)  Spend more time showing my son the world around him and the wonder in it.  We live in a world that is increasingly pessimistic but our future leaders need to be optimistic if we are going to really create change.  I don’t want him to be a whiner like so many other people out there in the context of “If I yell loudly enough about this, somebody else will do the work for me” that I see so consistently on social media.

5.)  Commit myself every day to honorable conduct.  It’s not that I sluff off on Honor but reminding myself about honor makes it easier to make decisions…when I get confused about what to do, it is usually because I am not asking myself “What does honor require here?”

6.)  Learn to play a musical instrument.  I have a bunch…I want to learn guitar…after I am done typing I think I will go pick it up and begin playing with it…even learning a single song would be cool.

7.)  Sing for people.  I’ve been told I have a lovely voice, time to use it.

8.)  Stop letting caustic people steal my energy.  Seriously, there are some people out there that love when you waste your anger on them…

9.)  Honor and serve the land where my feet touch the Earth and all who dwell there.