Reflections on the New Year
REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR
I love this time of year. With the hectic pace of Christmas behind me, I now have the time to look forward to what lies ahead. It’s the time of year when we evaluate ourselves and our lives and we decide to be better. And we succeed. Many of us may feel frustrated that we have fallen short of overly ambitious resolutions that we failed to manifest in our life last year. But we do get better. Humanity is more peaceful, we are more educated, we are more just, and we are more self-aware than we have ever been. We absolutely have more to do, but we have already made great strides. Change is never the straight line upward to the successes that we want. The line advances and regresses, but it mostly continues to improve, despite setbacks. If we look at the progress that we’ve made we’ll see we have changed culture radically in a very short period of time. Think about what life was like just fifty years ago. We change because of those resolutions that we each make to find a better way. This is what defines us as people.
It is easy to lose confidence that we are going to make it out of the climate crisis. It is easy to despair at the state of our government, and our world. We ask what can our small actions possibly matter in a world as vast and complicated as ours. Isn’t our government the only solution? Does what I do really matter? These fears are paralyzing, and they are inaccurate. It DOES matter what each of us does: every day we vote with our behavior, with our choices, and with our money. Throughout history we see the “power of one” at work in many of the big changes that have been made. Our challenge is to begin to see, as the saying goes, that “we are the answer that we are looking for.”
When we truly understand the issues behind the climate crisis we realize that everything has to change, and it’s difficult to imagine how that can possibly happen. I don’t know about you, but my life has unfolded in a way that I could not possibly have imagined. Life never fails to surprise. I don’t believe that we can always imagine the future. We have challenges like no other generation before us, but we have the opportunities that come with them. Opportunities always lie in the challenges and hardships that we face. We have the chance to remake a world that is more just, that cooperates and supports the natural world, and that redefines our view of success.
So, this New Years, I am asking my fellow citizens to resolve to do better, to show up, and to forsake convenience and habit, in order to make better choices. We need to understand that we will fall short. We need to vow to not waste time beating ourselves up for our shortcomings but to keep trying to do better. But most of all I am asking that you realize the power that lies within you to change your little piece of the world. If we all affect our spheres of influence, we can make changes that add up to a tipping point. We don’t need to wait for the government to save us; we don’t need to wait for technology to save us; we need to save ourselves, one action at a time. For myself I am taking inspiration from a poem by Martha Postlewaite that I have read again and again that illustrates the way each of us can do our part.
Clearing
by Martha Postlewaite
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there patiently
until the song that is yours alone to sing
falls into your cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.
I personally have a lot to change and the New Year gives me fresh motivation to work on it. I am energized. We CAN accomplish a great deal in a short time. We just have to choose to do it.