Thursday, December 31, 2020. I am imagining so many of us all around the world just sitting in our favorite chairs today, contemplating the year that has almost passed, ready to turn the page on 2020. Always satisfying to turn a calendar page. This year we can tear all the pages out. Release all of our aggressions toward a confounding, dangerous, stressful year. Shred the hateful year. Burn it. Bury it. Don’t look back.

Tempting to believe things will be magically different effective 00:00:01 Friday, January 1, 2021. Satisfying to see the odometer roll to zero. It seems, however briefly, a fresh start. A clear demarcation line between old and new, the life we have and the life we want.

And so, New Year’s Resolutions are made with varying degrees of planning and reasoned approach. Better health, better attitude, better relationships, better you, better me, better us. Some of us will keep some of those resolutions, make them into habits that become our daily lives. Good for us. Some will break those resolutions before the sun sets on 2021 Day One. No worries. Try again on Day Two, Day Three… Day 354.

The point is the effort. The point is putting our hopes into action. Doing things that carry us toward our hopeful selves rather than away.

I don’t often make New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve got all the usual hangups that need attention. I need loose the 30 pounds. I need to drink more water, eat less sugar, exercise more. I should meditate daily and keep my public blog and private journal. I need to read and write as much as possible. All of that is with me everyday. I need that today. I need that tomorrow. I need that four months from now and forever. So, I start today with a down payment of attention. I don’t wait for the odometer to roll. I give myself a head start.

What if I fail, you ask? Oh, I will fail. That is guaranteed. And so, January 1 is not about fresh start. January 1 is about picking it back up after I fail. The failure is certain. The picking it back up after I fail depends on me.

A mind trick, perhaps, but it helps take the magical thinking out of the calendar and the turning of the page.

We wake up tomorrow with new calendars, new digits to write in our daily life tracking chores.

New calendar. Same lives. Brimming with possibility.

Wishing you a happy, safe 2021. Be well, friends.