I know it is fashionable at this time of year to do a “wrap up” post, and I was going to resist it. But, as they say, things change…so bear with me here.
For a number of years now, I have spent time at the end of each year thinking about new year’s resolutions. I think it started around the turn of the millenium, but that part doesn’t matter. For most people, new year’s resolutions are somewhat of a cute exercise…not really something anybody expects to fulfill.
(There is a reason that health clubs offer extremely low monthly rate specials at this time of year if you pay for a year in advance: January is a busy month in a health club. Hard to get a machine, lots of sweaty compatriots working off the holiday bulge… February not so much. By the time April rolls around, 90% of the people who newly enrolled in January haven’t been seen since then. Word to the wise: when starting a new activity, it takes much more than 3 days or 3 weeks to make it a habit…3 months is more like it…but, of course, it depends upon the person…)
I too have been a victim of not keeping resolutions. So I decided some time ago that the problem was the plural. Now I think long and hard about one resolution that makes sense to me, and that I can commit to keep. I have a very good track record…
In related news, I started this blog back in March, with high hopes and, it turns out, an impossible to keep intent to blog every work day. Life intervened, and the posts have been fewer and farther between lately. I know this because I’ve just spent the last few minutes reading a few of the early posts…the ones where I had more time to write…
And while I’m on the subject, let’s look back at the whole year, shall we?
Almost exactly a year ago as I write this, I was informed that, due to financial difficulties, the church at which I served needed to let me go. There’s more to the story than that, of course, but a certain amount of panic set in, as you might imagine. Then, around tax time, my wife got caught in the combination of the financial meltdown and the merger of the company she worked for, AG Edwards with Wells Fargo, via Wachovia. She had survived the first round of merger, but lost out on the second. Somewhere along that time we lost our customer service person at the magazine, which meant I had to pick up that responsibility on top of everything I was doing.
Not good, right?
Yet there has not been a time in recent memory when I have been as optimistic as I am now. Why? Two meetings: one last December, and one in January. It is safe to say that those two meetings changed my life in ways that I am still trying to understand. Both of the meetings resulted from the panic that came with the loss of my job, and both led to an enormous sense of purpose.
More tomorrow…
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