January 1, 2013 is Now

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I always love January 1st, because like so many others, I see it as a chance for a fresh start; a chance to try, try again and hopefully get “it” right this time. Its a time to make promises to oneself and to vow to become a better person. Its a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. However, I think that when we look back, we see our mistakes and focus on the regrets of our lives. This causes us to look to the future in order to hope that we can do better next time. Instead, we should look at our lives right now. Its really very difficult to do, but if accomplished, brings a person into a state of happiness and fulfillment that can’t be found by reflecting on regret and hoping for something better.

As each minute passes, I realize that that moment in time is gone forever. I can never get it back and no matter what I did with that minute, I can’t change it now. I can plan for the next minute and try harder to make the next minute count, but by doing that, I’m wasting the current minute, and now its gone and I can never get it back. The next minute I’ll spend doing what I planned for it, but once it passes, I have no plan for the following minute and so I have to choose whether to regret that one, or use it to plan the next one. By not enjoying this current minute, there can never be any satisfaction. If I’m always looking backward or forward, I’m never enjoying the moment. There’s never a chance to just simply “be”.

Reflection and planning do have their places in our lives. Its as important to learn from our mistakes as it is to set and achieve goals. We just need to keep these things in balance. They need to afford us the opportunity to enjoy our lives. Imagine standing in a small plot of beautiful garden. If you look behind you, you see grey skies, desolate, cracked ground and a long, empty road that leads nowhere. You wonder what happened to the beauty that once existed. You stress about the choices you made. Leaning backwards, you long to return to that time to do things differently. It upsets you and pulls your focus away from what’s good in your life right now. Back there is more comfortable because you’ve already been there and you feel like, by going back, you can rid yourself of regret.

If you look ahead, all you can see is a deep fog. There are a few shapes in there, but those could just be your imagination and you spend a great deal of time and effort straining to see something among the clouds. You worry and fear what could possibly be hiding in the thick fog.

You repeat this process over and over again. First, looking behind you, then looking ahead, but you never, ever look down. Therefore, you never, ever see the beauty that’s all around you. You never see the good in the moment.

Count your blessings. Look at the beauty and peace that is your now.

For 2013, let’s think beyond ourselves, reach out to others, and come together as a unified front against all that is wrong in our world today. Strive to achieve a random act of kindness.

The past is gone; the future is uncertain, but right now, we can accomplish anything.