Year Out & Year In

New Year’s Day is one of my favorite holidays.

I love the feeling of a fresh, new year. It is like writing the first letter on a clean sheet of paper. The air of New Year’s morning is filled with possibilities and new beginnings.

I often take a long walk on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day to remember the lessons of the past year and anticipate the lessons of the new one.

In many ways, though, celebrating a new year is arbitrary. The challenges we face do not fit into neatly measured years, months, weeks, and days that give us a sense of control. We look back to see how we have grown, or forward to plan our steps into the future. How much have we really changed?

It is easy for us to see New Year’s as a turning point, to work toward it or to push away from it into each new year.

In fact, our lives are not neat. We carry our experiences, and our expectations, with us without regard to the calendar.

New Year’s is often not the turning point we expect it to be; our lives continue on in the same overall directions from year to year. Growth and change are challenging, and often take more than 12 months. We build momentum over time and eventually discover where our habits have taken us.

It can be helpful to reflect on where we have been, and where we would like to go. The larger, deeper aspects of ourselves shape the steps that we take each day.

The chalenge is to be awake and aware as we discern the patterns of our lives.

What lessons have you recognized during the last year?

[Image by Daniele Faieta]