A Sunflower's View: All Things New

Yesterday began 2016. A New Year. And so of course, everywhere you looked people were posting things about Newness, Fresh Starts, New You's, Letting Go of the Old and Embracing The New. We can't help it. A New Year feels like a fresh start. December is lovely, but Dark. The days shortening until a full half of the day is night. And Busy. We blink at Thanksgiving and somehow find ourselves transported through a foggy whirlwind of decorations, parties, shopping, food-making, and obligations to Christmas. The next week we are in a daze. How did we get here? How did I eat so much? How is it that another year is already over? How did I not accomplish anything I had planned on doing? Again?

This is why I'm not big on Resolutions. I always feel that if I think of a goal I'd like to accomplish, I should start on it, not wait for The Perfect Time. Good in theory, but I'm bad at it in practice. I suffer from that certain form of procrastination, you know the one that seductively lies to you and tells you that everything has to be "just so" in order to get started on something. Or finish something you've already started after you've been off-task for a while. If the timing isn't right, if conditions aren't perfect, if I only have five minutes instead of the hour I wanted... well, can't work on that right now.

Lies.

So here's my goal. Not my resolution. Just a goal I happened to come up with at this time of year because a couple of weeks ago I was doing my annual end-of-the-year mopey pondering and beating myself up. Regretting all the things I failed to do. Again.

The goal: STOP IT ALREADY! Just do it! Even if I only do it for five minutes. Go to bed every day wrecked because I fought hard all day to accomplish my goals. It doesn't matter what they are, if I care enough to set them, they matter enough to fight for! No excuses. Play dirty if that's what it takes! (Against my fears and bad habits.)

And this is where we circle back round to the New Year, New Things, thing. I don't think it's possible to accomplish that goal without fully letting go of any regrets over past mistakes. Learning from the past is good, dwelling on it is crippling.

And in that spirit - two Bible verses I claim for this point in my life.

"Thus says the Lord . . .

'Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.'"

~ Isaiah 43: 16, 18-19

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal.

~Philippians 3:13-14

Here's to Fighting for a Wonderful 2016!