New Year’s Reflections and Course Corrections

“I would write poems whether anyone looked at them or not, but I hope someone will.” -May Sarton.

Same here, and while I don’t formally market this blog, I would be honored if you forwarded posts to others who might enjoy them.

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The beginning of a new year is a good time for personal reflection.

I’m not into New Year’s resolutions, but I do check in with myself to see if course corrections are needed in my life. This process has evolved over the years.

I no longer get hung up on diet plans and weight loss. I’ve been thirty pounds overweight for thirty years. Why not just let it be?

I no longer set fitness goals. Personal best times for 10K runs and fifty-mile bicycle road races are in. These days, my knees are more content with neighborhood walks while listening to thought-provoking podcasts. During these walks I make a habit of observing new things and formulating mental connections. There’s a beautiful synergy between physical and mental exercise. No course corrections are needed here.

I finally published my 1st book in 2023. I feel good about checking that off the list. I’ve started another one, but I’m in no rush. Writing this blog helps me figure out what I’m thinking. I’ll stay the course on this as well.

I do have one area where a significant course correction is needed. Our son Daniel’s stroke is weighing heavily on me. Watching one’s parents lose their independence is one thing. Watching an adult child lose it is altogether different.

Loss is hard to deal with. We are fortunate to have many caring friends who’ve expressed an outpouring of concern. Still, there really isn’t anything anyone can do. The hardest thing is feeling helplessness in the face of a loved one’s suffering. I’m accustomed to solving problems. This situation doesn’t have a solution. All we can do is love Dan and support him.

I’ve kept a personal diary for thirty-five years. It’s filled with stuff I never shared until I started writing this blog. I was reading it recently and found peace in the following passage:

“As the evolution of the cosmos is about transcendence, we should always be hopeful because no matter how well we understand the components of our current circumstance, we cannot know how these components will ripen in the future.”

That entry pairs well with my favorite Jackson Browne song, For A Dancer. Here’s the opening:

Keep a fire burning in your eye

Pay attention to the open sky

You never know

What will be coming down.

I’m especially moved by the closing lyric:

And somewhere between the time you arrive

And the time you go

May lie a reason you were alive

That you’ll never know

It’s a melancholy sentiment, but I interpret it in a hopeful fashion.

I’ll begin the fifth year of writing this blog in just three months. I started it as a way to reach out to others during the imposed isolation of the Covid pandemic. The effort morphed into my book. In the chapter titled, Happiness and Hard Times, I suggest three steps to build resilience in the face of personal difficulties:

1. Stop disturbing thoughts immediately.

2. Completely accept situations as they are without wishing them to be different.

3. Continuously Renew, with positive actions.

That sums up my course correction plan for 2024.

“Physician, heal thyself!*”

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*The Bible, Luke 4:23

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