2010 Solutions

Today is a day of 1’s. A reset button on the mileage of days. Back to the starting line. A very easy opportunity to determine a new path on which to step into the coming year. A resolution.

It is the day of resolutions. And something about that reset button gives one the fuel to start them… and maybe the faith to commit to them. But resolutions… I don’t know… after so many years of them going by the wayside some place in the midst of February’s winter doldrums makes the idea of resolutions kind of… moot.

I’ve been thinking about the word resolution. It has a number of definitions, but the primary meaning is an idea, a determination. In a context outside of New Year’s, I actually think the word has more power. To resolve, to commit, to decide to do something. But… it is still an idea. It is not the action. Take off the prefix re and the word becomes solution. An answer. An action. 

But to have a solution, one needs a problem. Well… we all have problems. Something I’ve recognized very clearly in the past year is that in order to solve a problem, I must admit how I contribute to its creation. See the bad path, so I can turn off it and find a better way and solve that which detracts from life’s beauty.

I’ve decided (or maybe we can even say resolved) to not make a resolution today, this month, this year, but to create a solution. To do the thing that will make 2010 an improvement and not just another year to bid farewell to next December 31.

So, here they are, my solutions for 2010:

1. HEALTH. I think this one is pretty popular on January 1st. But this time I’m not reinventing the wheel. I did take a holiday the past week, but I just wish to continue on the road I started last year. To eat with conscience and conscious. And though it has relapsed a little with the shorter days of December (and my infatuation with Dr. Who), curing my sedentary disease. 

2. CELEBRATE LIFE. This connects to #1 with running. Feeling my heart beat and the oxygen moving through my veins makes me appreciate the machinery of my physical being. But… life is more than organic material. More than things. More than places. It is the people with whom my path has crossed in both smooth sailing and rocky bumps. There is no learning, no growth, no love without other humans in this life experience. I want to expand all of those as this year creeps towards the next. The best way to do that? Spend more time with people, talking, sharing ideas, creating memories, laughing, crying, relishing a moment. Celebrating not just my life, but the fact that it weaves with so many others.

3. MY NOVEL. I wrote it. I’ve edited it. I’ve solicited feedback from some very honest readers. I’m excited by the fact the publishing world and the art of bookmaking is changing. See how these elements collide with my will and where it all takes me in the year to come.

Three is a good number. They all connect and the baby steps towards the achievement of one solution ripple into the momentum of the other. I feel empowered, not just resolved. And that will make the difference between deciding and doing.

And with any luck, you, as a reader - and hopefully a friend, will be a part of it, too.