HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
20-20 . . . I Can See Clearly Now
Well, here it is, we are approaching the end of January 2020 and yet another year stretches before us. Funny how in January we can always look back on the last year and see what we did wrong, great, or even just ho hum. We can assess that year and see how we used our time, expended our precious energy, worshipped our God, loved our family and friends, saved, spent, volunteered or just lazed around.
Yes, there’s nothing like a little hindsight to wake us up and help us see clearly the path we trod for those 12 months before. And since we are so smug in our clear vision and appraisal of our acts, we even dare to make RESOLUTIONS as to how we will gird up the things we liked, change the things that need changing and keep intact what worked.
In that mindset I offer a few tidbits from the mind of this particular squirrel. Take them for what they’re worth and compare them with your resolutions. Are we on the same page, are we all part of some collective consciousness, or have you veered off on a different path? Are you striking out on a bold adventure or do you choose to hold down the couch a bit longer? Whatever your path, I wish you well. So, now here are my offerings as to resolutions:
§ I resolve, like almost everyone else, to lose 5 pounds or so.
§ I resolve to use my time better, by reading more, listening to more beautiful music and improving my mind.
§ I resolve to beautify my house a bit. As a retired person in the winter season I stay in said house way more than I used to, so I would like for it to be more appealing from the outside, more comfortable on the inside.
§ I resolve to let the bad feelings go and try to find a way to fill up my mind with things that will buoy me up for the vicissitudes that will come.
§ I resolve to get my blog advertised a bit better or if that does not work move on to another endeavor in life.
§ I resolve to become more independent and not bother friends and family with my challenges.
§ And finally, I resolve to look back on these resolutions in 2021 to see if I have made even a small dent.
I hope your year ahead is productive, healthy, happy, and filled with wonderful surprises that we all can not even conceive of at this auspicious start of 2020.
I have a poem that I love to read at the beginning of each year, so let me close by sharing that with you. It is from the pen of Robert Louis Stevenson and says all that needs to be conveyed from one human being to another, except for Happy New Year!
Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies, that make our lives delightful; and for our friends in all parts of the earth. Let peace abound in our small company.
Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and, down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another.
Robert Louis Stevenson