Resolutions For Living

New Year's Eve always leaves me with a sense of renewed hope. Weird. It probably should leave me with a sense of time passing too quickly; there is some of that too. This year everyone I know is facing tragedy and devastation of one kind or another. People our age (not yet 60) are starting to die suddenly and everyone has lost their life savings. People are losing their jobs and their homes and nobody seems to quite know what to do. I think for some it is harder to adjust because they have never really had to struggle. I know how to do without and how to buy less, spend less, eat cheaper, etc. So it doesn't seem quite so unfamiliar to me as it may to some. That doesn't, of course, mean I like it; and there is always the point at which you don't think you can do less. For some reason, this year, I think something good is about to happen to us, and I don't think it is just wishful thinking, I really believe it. I believe there is opportunity in bad times and I believe that it forces us to think outside the box, look for something new to do, some new way to look at our world and our situation. Maybe I just think because it all started sooner for us that somehow I feel like it ought to end; I don't really think that's the case though. Because I feel this way, more than ever before I am resolved to have no resolutions. I am resolved that whatever it is I resolve to do I will resolve to do it all through the year. When opportunities to be better, act better, improve myself or do more present themselves, I will try to take advantage of them and not because I made a new year's resoution but because they present themselves at that moment. I am resolved not to become mired in bad news and depression but to find a way through this time to a better one. I am resolved to keep an open mind to all the possibilities. I am resolved to continue to take care of myself, whatever the month or time of year. I am resolved to keep in contact with those I care about. I am resolved to continue living to the best of my ability and to continue hoping and working for a better life, come what may. I am resolved to do all these things in June as I do them in January. I am resolved to see the blessings in my life as often as possible, on every day, and I wish you all the same vision in the new year.