New Year’s Resolutions ~ How to keep one.

In the last few years I have developed a renewed sense of self by making and keeping a few New Year’s resolutions. I found the key to being successful at this is to make the first resolution an expansion of who I am as a person of interest.

What that means is to add some skill or pursuit(new hobby) that I can focus on as a part of who I am. Last year I decided to pursue Artisan Bread baking as a new way to express myself and share the joy of it with others.

Undaunted by a few failures, I pressed on and mastered the craft to my satisfaction. My family and friends now look forward to the creations that come out of my oven at mealtimes. Italian, French, Danish, it mattered not. My focaccia bread is “to die for!” The best I have ever tasted.

I tried and conquered many a recipe without fear of failure. The key was to learn from my mistakes. I did, and am a much better person for it. Amazing what life lessons can be learned in the kitchen.

This year I am going to try my hand at sculpture. I think I may have to take a course at our community college to get me up to higher levels but the beginnings I can handle on my own. I’m sure my family and friends will find it quite amusing. Wish me luck. Photos coming soon.

I failed at my second resolution which was to walk at least three miles a day. Too many things kept getting in the way and I soon gave up the required daily aspect, eventually it became less frequent and finally dropped to once a week if at all. If you asked me today I can’t remember the last time. Sigh!

Taking a clue from my first resolution I realized I had been too narrowly focused on one possibility and needed to approach the resolution with a broader stroke of the brush. The whole point of the resolution was to improve my physical health. There are many ways to do that. Why focus on one? That’s like making the same type of bread, every day, day after day.

This year my resolution will be to do at least three things each day to improve my health. Take a vitamin. Eat a salad. Skip the dessert. The list is as broad as my proverbial brush stroke. By the end of the year I may even get back to the three miles a day thing. Who knows?

The challenge will be to log in all the possibilities and see how many I can come up with to keep the game interesting. I wonder if drinking a cold beer counts as a herbal remedy for mood adjustment? I’ll try to keep you posted as I go along the path to better health.

This year will also lend itself nicely to an expansion of my social life. My New Year’s resolution will involve reconnection with family and friends. That includes at least one sponsored social event at my home such as dinner and a movie, or Poker Night with the boys. Maybe even an afternoon spot of tea with my lady friends, wife included of course.

I may even start sending out birthday cards to everyone in the family, all 128 of them! Do they offer wholesale prices on stamps? You get the picture. Reconnect! Damn the cost, full speed ahead.

The message I have for all of you is that New Year’s resolutions must be at least a little creative or you will soon lose interest in keeping them. Happy New Year to all of you, and may your New Year’s resolutions be a reflection of who you want to be by the end of this next year.

 

 

Joy or Sorrow ~ The choice is yours to make

Unlike the mental scale we use to measure our current state of mind, where we can add and remove things to get ourselves back into balance, the great scale that measures our lifetime can only have things added to it. None of these important memories can be removed.

We carry these things, good and bad, with us for the rest of our lives. The two platforms on this balancing scale are labeled “joy” and “sorrow.” It is this scale, hidden in the deep recesses of our minds, which we use to measure all of our efforts to love and be loved, past and present.

As we examine this scale, we begin to better understand the tight bond between time and love. Piled high on each side of this scale are the moments in time when the clock stopped and we created a memory we will never forget.

At the center of this memory will be our decision to love them or reject them. In the end it becomes either a moment of joy, or one of great sorrow. It is no wonder that it is so difficult to keep our balance.

True Sorrow is the only way to heal a broken heart

True sorrow is the only way to heal a broken heart. Each time you grieve you are offered an opportunity to forgive and be forgiven, but only if all the hate that was causing your grief had been removed from your heart. You must forgive both them, and yourself too.

How strange is it that we must use some of the love we felt for that other person to repair the damage caused when it is torn asunder. If we look a little closer we soon discover that it is not a lack of love or a failure to love that is causing us so much pain. It is the hate.

Like salt on a wound our feelings of hate continue to rile us up and aggravate the very wounds we desperately wish would heal so we can get on with our lives.

True sorrow for the loss of what was once so beautiful, when combined with forgiveness that releases us from the terrible desires of hate, is the only way to restore the peace of mind we seek.