A Solitary Resolution

A beautiful sight filled the sky early Saturday morning as I was clearing off the tables in the dining room where I work. It was an enormous, complete rainbow, brilliant in the full spectrum of its colors and awesome in its span. I chose to regard this as a positive omen for the new year. One must always remain hopeful. A new year--a clean slate upon which to mark our dreams, wishes, goals and accomplishments. I don’t create a list of resolutions at the beginning of each year. Through past experience, I’ve found that doing so does little more than set oneself up for failure. We all know what we need to do, what areas of our lives could use some improvement.

It hadn’t occurred to me before but I see from the majority of my journal entries over the past year, I seem to look backward on what my life has been rather than forward to what it could or will be. I don’t think it’s a case of living in the past. I’m very much alive and well and extremely happy in the present. My memories of my life thus far are wonderful for the most part and I enjoy writing about them in this medium which I discovered about a year ago. Much to my distress, I have already reached the age where it seems that time is flying by. Long ago, my parents would occasionally comment that this was a red flag signaling that the years were creeping up on you. I don’t want to be crept up on and, therefore, the closest I’ve decided to come to making a resolution for this year is to try to enjoy and live each day to its fullest, one day at a time.

This sounds ridiculously simple and somewhat inane, I know, but I don’t think it’s as easy a task as it appears. We are all so caught up in the whirlwind of what’s happening next week, next month, next season, next holiday, etc. that the here and now gets lost. John Lennon wrote a love song to his second son many years ago entitled, "Beautiful Boy". It contains a line that has long stood out to me as a wake-up call as to how one should approach life:

                "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"

I would like to start paying closer attention to what’s going on around me in the present rather than focusing on the usual, endless chant of "I can’t wait until this day’s over", "Will the weekend ever get here?", "I can’t wait until this month, season, whatever is over". I’m not referring to the joy of anticipation here, a feeling which enhances special times and events. It’s the brow-beating of one day into the next and to what exactly is it that we’re all so madly rushing? I’ve begun to view it as nothing more than a mad dash to our final destination on the earth--death. We’re constantly bombarded with reminders of what will be going on in the future; the present has disappeared. This is my take on what seems to be happening, in my life at least, and I’m going to try very hard to enjoy and savor each day as it unfolds. Yes, it’s true; yet another manifestation of maturity because it seems that this has all turned out to be nothing more than my personal version of "Take time to stop and smell the roses". And that’s not a bad idea either!