It’s a brand spankin’ new year. We earthlings have made another trip around the sun.
Go us! Well, all we really had to do was keep our feet stuck onto a spinning globe while continuing to breathe for 365 days in a row. Still, because every year contains tests of a person’s respiratory and/or sticking powers, I say congratulations!
With that part of our journey behind us, let’s tiptoe now into the possibly dicey (time to quit smoking?) sometimes pricey (buy a gym membership?) and in Canada definitely icy waters of new year’s resolutions. I know, I know, you don’t make them anymore because you never keep them anyway. But hear me out. A new year’s resolution is supposed to help us accomplish something that will improve things somehow, right? So what if, instead of resolutions, we just keep on going around in the same good-for-us circles where we’ve already built up momentum? New year’s revolutions. Get it? Here’s an example: you already walk your dog around the block every day. Just keep doing it in 2025. New year’s revolution successfully kept! How simple is that?
Sound too good to be true? I dare you to try it. I’m going to. This year I revolve – ha! – to wear my favourite blue jeans at least once a week, just like I do now, because they are fun and make me smile. My apologies to friends/family who are sick of seeing them; maybe spin your own fashion revolutions! I also revolve to check my mailbox every single weekday. Like I do now. Except when there’s a postal strike; that would just be silly. (You did that too? Oops.) So what if the box is empty? “Check the mailbox each day, keep the flyers at bay.” Or should I say circulars?
There’s nothing wrong with traditional new year’s resolutions, the kind that help you make positive changes, thus improving your life and perhaps the lives of others. In fact, I’m all for them, especially when they stick. I just think we can also build on what we’ve already got going.
Every morning for many years, almost without fail, I’ve opened up one book or another of inspirational writings and read a page. Circling in on these books over time has actually made me less spinny instead of more wound up. Of course, my opinion on that is subjective and certain parties may disagree, but my spinniness level is not the issue here. The point is I’m trying. Some may say very trying, but whatever. Moving on.
In 2025 I plan to keep going around in the circles that work for me. Sort of like an exercise circuit at the gym, but without the barbells and rowing machines, and full length mirrors in the harsh light of post-feast January.
Who knows what all this revolving might lead to? As the little wooden plaque on the coffee room wall of my former workplace proclaimed astutely (until the boss took it down) “Blessed are they who go around in circles, for they shall be called big wheels”.
Happy New Year!