I think it's instilled in us from such a young age that as we progress through life, we naturally face each new year with an opportunistic perspective of renewal.
Honestly, it's one day later than yesterday... But somehow it feels different. A new year, all new possibilities, new chances to make this the best year of our lives. (I'm aware that sounds like a line from a John Hughes movie... I should Google it. It probably is.)
I woke up today and felt such peace with where I'm at in my life. There are so many things that need to be progressed but what is life's purpose if we aren't consistently moving forward?
Around the world, I imagine there are people set on making change today. I found this quote by Alfred Tennyson... oh, how I loved it.
"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering 'It will be happier'..."
I got literal chills when I read it. Doesn't hope do exactly that, gracefully and elegantly seep in like quiet tendrils of smoke through doorways and open windows, filling us with affirmation and a calm sense of purpose for whatever the thing is we're looking forward to?
I can sometimes have an ultimately Utopian view of the world, I'm comfortable in that knowledge and to be quite honest, I much prefer it that way. I love viewing life through rose tinted glasses, and I never understood why that felt problematic to some people... I mean, we have to live life somehow, and we only get one shot (unless you're of the reincarnation sort, in which case I suppose that's untrue.) But regardless, if you have two ways to live - one in which life is real and cold and hard and people are cruel and children are sometimes sick and puppies are abandoned in warehouses and Trump is President-Elect (ugh), why would you not choose to view it differently? It's not like you can go back at the end and change the way you looked around you for all those years. I'd much rather reflect back someday and feel comfortable that not only was I intelligent enough to realize the cold, hard facts are just that - but that I was also wise enough to see the good over the bad as many times as possible, to understand that puppies are abandoned but that there are also good people out there doing their best to save every one. That children are sometimes sick, but that there are good people out there doing their best to save every one. That President-Elect Trump exists... but there are good people out there that voted against him.
I've always believed firmly, regardless of basis in spirituality or religion or faith or the Universe or whatever the thing is that you believe, that life must always have equilibrium, a yin and a yang to everything. For every ounce of wisdom and brilliance, there is an equal amount of something on the other end, balancing it out. For every bit of creativity, there must be an equal bit of crazy. To feel love and passion and joy deeply and immensely... you just as deeply experience all-encompassing sorrow and pain. This is exactly as it should be. If we didn't understand the sheer tragedy of a broken heart, we would never hold close the value of the people that help repair it, and the love that fills it after.
But again, I digress from my purpose here... Hope.
"Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, that sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."
Oh, Emily Dickinson, between you and Mr. Tennyson, no poet shall ever have to define hope for us again. You've both nailed it squarely on the head. Such a quiet and understated feeling hope can be. Today, I intend to revel in it, as I always do on New Year's Day, as I sit back and plan all of the ways in which I can be a happier and more fulfilled person in the coming year. My changes are small and big... I want to adopt a cleaning system so that my new house remains consistently tidy and stress-free to live in. I want to live a pescatarian lifestyle. I want to become healthier. I want to be a better mother. Better lover. Better friend.
I like to think that though, as with the tides of majority, I have not held onto my New year's resolutions consistently throughout the years past (for what am I if consistent in my non-consistency) I will, of course, be different this year. I believe this to be true because I am already so very different this year. Last year, 2016, I made the biggest changes of my life, and who I am as a person is entirely different than who I was on this day a year ago... so you see, it's not completely out of line to think, to believe, that this year my resolutions will be approached differently as well. Considering this little slice of blog space is one of them, should I succeed, I'm sure it will be well documented here.
Hope, my friends... The thing with feathers, smiling from the threshold... I welcome you in.
Happy New Year to you and yours, and may hope find you as well.
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