New Year, New Me?

Maybe you’re the type of person who makes resolutions or sets some goals or dreams for the coming year at the stroke of midnight and eagerly plunges headfirst into doing what you set out to do.  Perchance you’re more like Lieutenant Dan with the cold hard stare of a depression fueled by traumatic circumstances and things that just never seem to ever go right who knows this year is just the same as the last.  Maybe you’re someone in between, and this day, this year is quite possibly full of anticipation, some zealous elation and perhaps just a bit of trepidation.

As Long Limbs Lenore states in the movie Forrest Gump:

“Don’t you just love New Year’s? You get to start all over.  Everyone gets a second chance.”

May we all hold on to that kind of wistfulness on this day. We have a chance to do something over, to try to be a better person, to love ourselves a bit more.  We may not be able to rewrite the early chapters of the story of life that we all pen, but the rest of the book remains unwritten, each page waiting to start anew.  The ending is, of course, unplanned.  And this year’s chapter is just beginning.

Of course, I just paraphrased my favorite song by Natasha Bedingfield in that last paragraph too.

Most of what I just wrote above was penned last night, as the clock inched closer and closer to midnight. I had been asked weeks ago to be the worship leader at the tiny church I attend in my little swath of the Midwest and until about 2300 yesterday, I could not seem to find the words I wanted to write to start my opening. Most times, the words come easy for me. But sometimes, what I want to write just doesn’t seem to flow, but what I should write comes out like mad.

So that, in a nutshell, became the opening focal point of the service I was a part of today. Instead of a normal service, we had a group discussion about what the coming year would mean to us. We wrote down and then spoke aloud our intentions and dreams and hopes for the coming year as individuals, a church family, and a community as a whole.

It got me to start reflecting, as I often do. It also made me think of this song, one of my favorites by Jars of Clay, which some know will always be my absolute favorite band:

“January One, I got a lot of things on my mind… I’m looking at my body through a new spy satellite…. Try to lift a finger, but I don’t think I can make the call… So tell me if I move, ’cause I don’t feel anything at all, all… So carry me…. I’m just a dead man …. lyin’ on the carpet … can’t find a heartbeat……Make me breathe.. I wanna be a new man… Tired of the old one … Out with the old plan.”

~ Jars of Clay, “Carry Me”

I used to be the kind of person who made resolutions every year on this day. I set them up, acting like they were strong and resolute sentinels, waiting to be done and completed as the year went on. Ultimately, every year they were just mere playing card houses, easily broken and easily done away with. The resolutions I set in January were gone by February and I was left beating myself up because of it. I was tired of breaking things I had made myself promise to do.

So I stopped making resolutions. I needed a new plan.

Instead, these days, I set some goals I would love to accomplish. These I feel are more doable, and I can adjust them as needed. I also tend to keep them better, because keeping a goal in mind, for instance getting two thousand views in 2022 on this blog, is something I can attain and strive for instead of a vague resolution like “lose weight”. I can celebrate them when I reach them. I can create new goals as well when I complete them. or just see where the year tales me. This year, I am continuing this magical journey of finding something special about every moment, writing and reading as much as I can, and trying to be the hope and joy through that writing I feel this world needs. I also keep trying to bring joy and love and peace and hope to others through every intentional action I do.

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With goals, I get second chances and do overs too. I can adjust them if I know I won’t meet them. Maybe hoping for 50 books downloaded this month is too lofty a realization and next month I should only shoot for 25. Perhaps today I only write a sentence instead of the whole chapter. There is always tomorrow to finish what I started today. There’s next week to set up that blog post. There is the rest of the year to push my writing via marketing. It allows me to have some fluidity in how to get things done.

I know this goal making doesn’t work for everyone. I am also aware that some may think I am merely reframing a resolution in my head. But it works for me. And I know everyone must find what works for them.

So whether you decide to find a way to love yourself every day, take that journey to become a healthier you, create yourself as someone new, write out resolutions, aspirations, hopes, intentions, dreams or just a list of things you would like to see happen in 2023, I hope that you find a way to make your year magical for you.

After all, we all have open, blank pages ahead of us. Write your own story, dear readers.

Stay magical.

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