Happy New Year. Hooray! Last year is over. The new year is upon us. Out with the negative. In with the positive. The stock market’s going to go up. My weight is going to go down. This is the year we turn it all around. Right?
Hope springs eternal and the human heart really does beat to the rhythm of fun and fantasy. Wouldn’t it truly be wonderful if things really did take a sharp right turn this year and people stopped hating people and killing people and making life difficult for other people who thought, dressed, looked, and acted differently from themselves?
Theoretically, we know that this could happen any day of the year. Realistically, we know it won’t, but there is still that “new beginning” feeling on January 1st that makes you want to believe that anything is possible. Why not? This is the year it will all fall into place.
This is what New Year’s Resolutions are all about after all. I may not be able to control the rest of the world, but I can control me, right? I can stop drinking, smoking, gambling, overeating, wasting time, sitting around doing nothing, whatever. And if I can do it, then maybe, just maybe, someone else can stop shooting, raping, pillaging, driving under the influence, blowing up marketplaces, trying to bring down airplanes, and doing all that other anti-social stuff that makes life slightly less perfect than we would like it to be. Heck, I’m doing my part. Why don’t you do yours?
Actually, Lao Tzu had it right. He said that “a peaceful man makes a peaceful household, a peaceful household makes a peaceful neighborhood, a peaceful neighborhood makes a peaceful village, a peaceful village makes a peaceful state, a peaceful state makes a peaceful country, a peaceful country makes a peaceful world. And it can all start with me.”
So don’t worry about the other fellow. Treat others as you would be treated. Live your life the way you believe things should be. Improve the world in the little part of it that surrounds you and see where it goes from there.
Know that true joy comes from within and is the absolute core of our being. Know also that the law of karma really does hold sway and that everything does balance out in the end. Of course, the end is a very very long time from now, at least as measured by Earth years. Which brings us back to where we started. Happy New Year.
peace……………….ag