Thoughts On News Year's Resolutions

Resolutions?   

I don't make them.  It is as simple as that.  One reason is that I am
constantly walking the fine line between self-improvement and self
acceptance.   Another reason is that I have a hard time separating the individual years,  seeing the actual start and finish of a year from the continuous flowing water like river of time in which I tread.  

As a former smoker,  my resolution would often be to quit smoking,  but that happened when it happened, and not necessarily when I said it would.   I remember making and breaking that resolution several years in a row.   The important thing is that I did quit and I have not smoked cigarettes for many years.  

Of course there are things that I could improve upon.  Many are the same
things that most of us could improve upon;  more exercise,  less
sugar,  more rest...  these things I address on an individual basis,  a
circumstantial basis and the only regret I do have is not exercising
more.  

I suppose I just lead myself to the one thing I would make a resolution about, were I to make one,   exercise...

I do a fair amount of walking but shun intentional, habitual exercise. 
Of course this is also closely related to self discipline.   Discipline
to write, discipline to meditate,  perhaps practice yoga.    There are
also visits to the dentist on a regular basis.  This is certainly
something I could work on,  but not just because it is a new year. 

These things could use improvement all year long,  on a daily basis,
today the same as yesterday.

There are many many things I could make resolutions about for the new year...

....reading this back I have a realization.... perhaps I do make resolutions,
perhaps I make and break micro resolutions all year long,  on a daily
basis, today the same as yesterday...

I suppose I just lead myself down a road of resolution after resolution just ripe for the making.  

Self promises waiting there,  hope builders for breaking

...but I don't go there. 

I came from there.

This New Year I will do some meditation, prayer,  not talking to God/ess, as
in the western way of prayer,  but listening to God/ess in the proper
way... and reflection on what I have and what I do and all the many
blessings I am thankful for.  I will reflect on all the positive changes I have already made;  drinking water instead of soda,  choosing raw cashews over coffee cake...  

I will continue to practice random acts of kindness in my regular life. 

I will continue writing thought flow blogs about nothing, to no one,  to
purge myself of feeling and to digest my internal mental dialogue.

I  will continue to be content with the absence of pain and stress.  To be
thankful for my many many blessings.  To be thankful that I am who I am
and that I have the life that I have,  those are my constant
resolutions,   bully with the New Year business.

So Aquarius is the house the sun passes through on its revolution,
visiting twelve stations (twelve stations of crosses,  twelve apostles)
and the calender,   the marking of the sun's apparent revolution around
the earth by ancient man...

Time.  Nothing more than time.

The time to buy a new calendar and make schedules.  The time to look
forward and embrace the illusion of control of the coming days and
months.  The time to make ego protecting plans and goals that one will achieve to
mark one's existence.  To validate one's exchange of oxygen on this
planet.

I will go about as yesterday, as I have nothing to
regret.   I will not change anything,  build up anything,  make silly
promises to myself because I don't recognize my own insecurity...

No, resolutions are merely ego games.  You're playing with yourself.

Self actualization is the only resolution of value to humanity and to the
self that one really need be concerned with and looking at one's life using the rubric of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is perhaps the most constructive thing one can do for the planet and society.

In what area of life are you stuck? 

Do you have stable relationships?
Are you able to accept and embrace the differences of others, or do you
surround yourself only with those familiar and like yourself?  Do you
have stable religious beliefs,  or do you have a history of wavering in
and out of religion,  preferring to use religion to judge others?  Are
you comfortable and at peace with the idea of "God and Salvation" vs
"punishment and guilt"?
Do you look at others and immediately pick out their faults, or compare yourself to them?

You may want to locate yourself on that Heirarchy of needs,  wash the film
off of your mirror,  proceed to understand your ego weakness, and
work on emotional maturity and growth.  These are the things that I
believe will help the world improve...

What is YOUR New Year's Resolution?
If you dare to make one.
.
As for me.  I welcome the new year with no emotion,  just thankfulness for
my blessings and curiosity,  not a hand drawn road map, drawn by a
blind cartologist,  just curiosity and what I consider faith,  for what
is ahead.

If I look behind me,  everything seems to have turned
out okay, except when I tried to control everything,  why change the
rules in the middle of the game?

I worry that if my every waking moment was spent trying to achieve lofty goals,  I may
miss my whole life altogether...

...and die with nothing more than a long list of achievements.

Peace.