I have done New Year's resolutions in the past, but not every year. I am less likely to do them, being largely satisfied with my life, although I having been working to up my healthy habits, just without a formal resolution.
But I did read an idea that I liked and I have put it into practice. I have set up a jar on my kitchen counter, and every day I write on a slip of paper and drop it into the jar.
It isn't a gratitude jar. As someone with a history of long history of depression (although, thankfully, I am not troubled with it now and haven't been for some years), I am wary of the customary advice to keep track of one's gratitudes. For someone with depression, this well-meaning tool can be turned into a cudgel if one is not careful: "What do you have to be depressed about? Don't you realize that you have a house and food to eat and a loving family?" [Depressed people can almost hear the unspoken thought hanging in the air, 'How dare you be so ungrateful?']
Instead of writing about gratitudes, I am writing something each day that I have noticed that may be as simple as 'I saw the light glinting along the edge of the leaves and it glimmered in an astonishing way.' Simple things. Lovely things. Things that made me happy.
The idea is take take the jar apart on New Year's Eve next December and read them all and revisit the small moments that have made up a year, that might be forgotten.
It is the season of Epiphany. In the church year, it celebrates the time that the magi came to give gifts to the Christ child. The dictionary describes 'epiphany' as: (1) a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. (2) an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking.
My church, for the third year in a row, handed out what are called 'star words' on Epiphany. It is a word we are meant to reflect upon in the coming year. Mine was 'listen.' I have been thinking it is a good word with which to arm myself as we enter this new dreaded political season, under the sway of someone (frankly) that I loathe and distrust.
I will try to keep my balance and enter this new year with a willingness to listen in a spirit of curiosity rather than fear. We'll see if this helps.
Image description: Background: a field of stars over a silhouetted mountain range cast in darkness. Bottom center: a mason jar tied with a gold ribbon. Small slips of paper are clustered in the bottom of the jar. Center: the word 'Listen.'Epiphany
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