Resolution To Resolve
The new year was ushered in a week ago. Immediately people were buzzing about their resolutions for 2010. Statistics have shown that more gym memberships are sold in the month of January than any other month of the year. Memberships in weight-loss programs skyrocket. Smoking cessation programs are entered into by the droves. These acts are good for the people selling these products, but what happens after the initial resolution is passed?
A resolution is a declaration to make a change. This can be a good thing, if the resolution declared is seen through to the end or determined outcome. Unfortunately, but February and March the gyms empty out and the weight-loss programs see a drastic decline in numbers and sales. The smokers find warm places to indulge and ease the stress they encounter trying to quit. Dose this make the New Years Resolution something that we should take with the mentality that it will fail so why bother indulging?
It seems that making resolutions should be goals that can be kept and should be made and revisited throughout the year. I have also considered another facet to this annual melee folks seem fascinated with. All the resolutions are individual. I propose more global resolutions. Last week reading the newspaper (yes, the one you hold in your hands and get newsprint all over your fingers) I looked at the editorial comic and pondered. The parents were putting the Christmas decorations away and the son was watching and questioning. Sticking out of cartons were a couple of banners. One read “Peace On Earth” and the other “Good Will toward Men”. I quickly understood the meaning in this cartoon. It seems that along with the decorations, we pack away peace and good will as well. there was the usual quote in the Editorial section and it seemed to me to go hand-in-hand with this cartoon “Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.” ~~ Peg Bracken.
These commodities which are part of everyone’s vocabulary in November and December seem to fade or get packed away when the season ends. Peace, good will, time and love should be as much a part of our lives and vocabulary in June and July as they are in November and December. We should set more global resolutions that we can follow through with not only the rest of the year, but the rest of our lives. I am not talking about scheduling a trip every year to take money to third world countries. We cannot reach out to those across the globe when we can’t even open our hearts to accept our next door neighbor for who they are. Making thing better or striving for peace is not about changing the other person. It is about changing our own hearts to accept them for who they are and what they are.
Sometimes it is even closer than the next door. There are many people around the world who can’t even accept the differences in the souls who reside in their own house, their own family. Accepting doesn’t mean changing that person to be like you or believe the way you do. The change is in your heart and seeing that person as a human being, a soul. All human beings deserve to be seen as individuals. Resolve this year to be accepting of others to visualize an end that includes a world that is able to live more peaceably. Set a resolution to resolve a change in your own heart to provoke change around the world.