Musings As 2005 Winds Down

Just a hair over 24 hours before the new year arrives and I sit and contemplate the year now nearly gone. I always get like this at this time of year. I sit and I wonder about how I used the time and gifts I was given, how I could have done things differently, and how I'll use my time and gifts this coming new year.It's not regret or negative thinking so much as it's a combination of constructive contemplation and closure.
A wiser older nurse at work once told me something along the lines of just put it behind you and move on. She was refering to our life's experience's and how it can be negative to dwell on the past and instead, learn from the past and move on. No matter if the experience was positive, negative, or any combination or degree between - just put it behind you and move on, learn from it and apply the new found wisdom to tomorrow and what tomorrow brings.
There's all sorts of "New Years Wisdom" I focus on this time of year, the entire year for that matter. We all have 24 hours in a day and it's up to us how to use them, today is the first day of the rest of my life, and a whole slew of other sayings and axioms too numerous to go on here. If I thought of most of them, I could write a book.
Everyone has 24 hours in a day and it's up to us how we use them. I think I first heard this one in relation to time management. Albert Einstein had 24 hours a day and look what he did, Mother Theresa had 24 hours a day and look what she did and so did every other man, woman, and child who we admire for what they accomplish in their 24 hours. It's all in how we use those 24 hours. No one man or woman has so much as one second more or less. It's a matter of utilizing your 24 hours properly with what resources you have and make. Making time, finding balance, utilizing what one has. It sounds so simple and it is, the greatest truths usually are.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life is a paraphrase of another axiom I heard some years ago. I don't recall where or exactly when but it did strike a cord within me. No matter where we are or end up or what we've done in the past; today is today and yesterday is yesterday and tomorrow might be tomorrow. It get's down to we only have today and now. We might have the rest of our lives, we certainly have today and, more importantly, we have now. if we want change and if we want to get on with our lives it has to be today, now. It won't be tomorrow because no one is promised tomorrow. It won't be yesterday because yesterday is gone. It will only be today and, most importantly, now.
These two little bits of wisdom touch on resolution. Resolution is a very powerful thing. The founding fathers of our nation resolved to form a new government, Mother Theresa resolved to serve the poor, and anyone who has ever done anything has resolved to it. Resolution can be half the battle to winning the war of whatever we're fighting or dealing with; the other half is the actual battle and after resolution, it's a down hill run. When one resolves to do something, truly resolves, one is empowered with almost super-human strength. No enemy or opponent can overcome the more powerful resolve of another. Resolution goes both ways, positive and negative.
Positive resolution is a trait to be admired and sought after and nurtured. I've always been amazed at cancer patients who I thought were sure to give up the ghost and then bounce right back. These men and women had resolved to beat their disease process and what it was doing to their selves. Single mothers who bring up their children on their own against incredible odds with limited resources are another example. These women put food on the table, keep a roof over the heads of the little ones, bring up the little ones, work, maybe go to school and fill the roles of mommy and daddy and overcome every obstacle in their path and come out smelling like roses. I am always amazed by how single mothers do it and how they succeed.
Negative resolution, there's not really a lot to say about it except it only leads down a dark and negative path with no good outcome unless one changes their ways and their resolve. We can call this being hard headed or having a bad attitude. However we refer to it, we've all seen the effects first hand or otherwise. It's not something we want or desire, but unless we change our resolve; it's where or how we end up.
It's all a matter of choices. The choices we make can be as clear and black or white or they can involve huge gray areas in between. Sometimes it's the gray areas we have to chose. A lot of life isn't just black and white, a lot of life is gray. Some areas may be more gray than others and some gray areas may be less wide than others, but I've come to learn a lot of life is lived in the gray areas no matter how black or white we may want it to be.
Anyway. I choose to log off now and get on with my life. I choose to stretch, break out the jump rope and get some exercise and reap the benefits thereof. I choose for what's left of 2005 and I resolve to improve my choices for 2006.