Resolutions? Nice try.

As is tradition, people across the globe are making their New Year's Resolutions. I never could get into this weird little habit we humans came up with to make ourselves feel better about the crap from the old year. Really, it is just another 365 days, what makes the first 31 of them any better of a time for change in your life than the other 334? Very few people ever even make it past the first 14 days of the new year with their resolutions in tacked, let alone the first 31. Now, if you are one of those who has made it past the 31 days mark, I congratulate you, you are among the few. If you are one of those who has made it past the three months mark I applaud you and give you a hearty hand shake, you are among the rarest of them all.

This last year has been one of the most "interesting" I've ever experienced in my 20 some years of existence. You might say it has been a year of smelting. (no, I didn't fast showers). I have been like a lump of nasty looking ore that needed major purifying/smelting. Looking at the lump you could see that there was likely a bit of silver, maybe gold, and maybe the rare chance of gem stones. But for the most part all that could really be seen was the dirt, rock, tar, and filth of something recently pulled out of some ground from the depth of some mountain no one knows about. You might be saying right now, "wow, you have a pretty low self esteem issue". Well, I can not say that I have a very bright and pretty view of myself. But I am very happy to be seeing this "lump of ore" in all its ugliness. I much rather have my ugliness revealed to me here while on earth rather than after its too late and I've failed to accomplish what I should have in my time here because of a blindness to my hindrances. Last year was a year that was difficult to live through, but now I see that this year will be much more difficult to walk through seeing what I do that needs to be purged before the next phase of life (what ever that phase might be).

So, I don't have a new years resolution, I have a new phase resolution. And really, the resolution came about before the new year was even here. This hunk of ore has been in the furnace for a long time and its finally ready to start letting go of some of the crap that has been hiding the precious things underneath. I think it might hurt less letting go than it hurt to hang onto the junk (or so I hope).
Grace grace.

I'll leave you with a bit of encouragement if you are one of the thousands that has chosen to make those new year's resolutions. I have noticed time and again that the resolutions most often to fail are those made out of guilt or of fleshly desires. The resolutions most often to make it for a good long while are those made out of the heart. If you have a desire to work your trouser size down by two or three sizes, that's fine, but you could have done this last year too, good luck. If you have a desire to make amends with certain people, or to change your attitude, or to make life easier for those who have had it harder than you; you have a real fighting chance because these are works of and in the heart.

The heart can give your will power a far better boost than your mind or stomach.