Happy New Year!
New years are filled with goals and resolutions, words and mottos, to-do lists and never-to-do-again lists.
Sadly, too many of those who make goals do not achieve them. Resolutions remain unresolved. To-do lists go unfinished.
A big part of this is life. Life is busy, chaotic, uncertain. Often, just when things are going well, skies cloud over, and a gentle shower of sadness (or grief, rejection, loneliness, hurt, financial instability) turns into a thunderstorm that, before you know it, becomes a tsunami.
How do we take control not only of our lives again, but of another year that is quickly passing by again?
I believe it starts with purpose.
Me & My Husband, Gary, on New Year’s Eve
I have long believed that each of us is here for a reason and purpose. You may not believe that, you may not know that, but it is true. Each of us is a gift, and when we learn to love ourselves, we open up, and our gifts become known.
One of my favorite essays on purpose and life that I love to share on New Year’s is the following from George Bernard Shaw, who wrote: "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.
Life is no 'brief candle' for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."