As the New Year celebrations approach, it is traditional to think about making resolutions, those choices projected into the far flung future of the year… which few of us actually manage to keep beyond the second week of January. Many of them are ‘ought to’ plans… losing weight, getting fit… We give ourselves ‘all or nothing’ goals and, instead of focussing on our progress, we tend to judge ourselves in terms of success or failure. In fact, the most popular resolutions we make are those which are most commonly broken. We seldom make the simple choice to laugh more or to plunge headlong into whatever adventure the day brings.

Yet the rebirth of the year seems a natural moment to make changes and whether or not we declare a personal intent, there is always the awareness that we stand on the edge of a new beginning. We may look back at the year that has passed and determine to carry what we have learned forward. We may choose to address areas of our lives with which we ourselves are not satisfied. There may simply be the nebulous idea that something has to change.

But of course, changes are happening all the time; some through conscious choice, some as a result of changes in our world. We are constantly in a state of flux, even when we are not aware of it and it is how we choose to react to those changes that determines how our future unfolds. Every second presents us with the opportunity to start again, so even if we ‘break’ a resolution, if we baulk at a fence or ‘fail’ a challenge, we can still move forward; perhaps trying again, perhaps taking another path.

Our choices are like the leaves on a tree. Look closely and each leaf holds the pattern of the tree within it, yet should a single leaf fall, the tree does not fail. The leaf simply returns to earth where it will nourish the tree itself and new leaves will grow.

There is one certainty upon which we can count though, if we resolve on a change we have to do something to bring it about. Failure is certain if we never make the attempt, and it may be that the courage to try is more important than whether or not we succeed. Perhaps it is in the trying that we find our measure of success.

New Year’s Eve may be a time of resolutions, yet every day our lives change as the present slides into an unchangeable past. Each day sees us change in ways remarkable or infinitesimal. For me, the last line of Colleen Brown’s powerful piece says it all:

In a day

In a day my life changed.

In a day I went from ignorance to knowledge.

In a day I went from existing to living.

In a day I learned the difference between love, hate and apathy.

In a day I woke up single and went to sleep at night married.

In a day I woke up childless and went to sleep as a mother.

In a day I woke up married and went to sleep single.

In a day I went from knowing fear to not letting fear stop me.

In a day I went from having religion to knowing faith.

In a day I woke up with no motivation and went to sleep burning with energy to change.

In a day I went from victim to victorious.

In a day I went from doing what I did to doing what I could.

In a day I went from not knowing I could to not accepting I could not.

In a day I went from being told I could not to knocking down any could not standing in my way.

In a day I went from sitting to riding three miles.

In a day I went from three miles to ten miles.

In a day I went one hundred miles.

In a day I discovered I could go as far as I want to go.

In a day I went from never understanding loss to becoming fatherless.

In one day I learned that I decide who I am regardless of what others think me to be.

In a day I learned my faults do not have to be my downfalls but can be my humility and my grace.

In one day I realized I was stronger than I ever knew and yet not nearly as strong as I will some day be.

In a day I went from beating myself up to giving myself a break.

In one day I discovered who I was is driving me to who I will be.

In a day, this day, my life will change.

“In a day” reproduced with kind permission
Copyright © Colleen Brown The Chatter Blog