Thomas Fiffer offers a new approach to starting the new year.
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New Year’s is coming—again.
And for many of us, the new year brings the same old.
A new list of resolutions and promises to change.
Replacing a list of half-completed, wholly abandoned, and never started self-improvement projects from last year.
Forgive yourself. It happens to the best of us.
Because while the new year is the perfect time to launch a fresh start, adopt a new attitude, engineer a shift in direction, and finally begin doing things differently, we often end up falling into the same traps, getting stuck in the same mud, and failing to achieve the traction we need to move those resolutions and promises forward to fruition.
My Facebook friend and neighbor Mel Schwartz posted a quote this morning that validated my intention to write this post today.
Einstein said, ‘The same thinking that creates the problem cannot solve that problem.” This is an immensely important point. In order to stop creating the same problems, relationship, health, financial, etc. we must learn to think differently. Literally to see differently, with new eyes, so to speak.
So here’s my meditation on how to start the new year in a way that will get you to where you want to be next year at this time.
It’s all been said before … but not this way.
It’s all been lived before… but not this day.
It’s all been seen before … but not from here.
It’s all been done before… but not without fear.
It’s all been felt before … but not inside this heart.
It’s all been staged before … but I’ve not played this part.
Look up at the sky, the sun, the moon.
It’s the same sky but new—a new same sky, same in its vastness, new in each cloud and stretch of blue.
It’s the same sun but new, a new same sun, same in its rising, new in its angle of ascent and where each ray falls.
It’s the same moon but new, a new same moon, same in its orbit, new in color, shape, shadow, and glow.
Now look at you.
It’s the same you but new, a new same you, same in your you-ness, new in having lived another day, in knowing what you didn’t know yesterday, and in doing what you haven’t done before.
Now think about love.
It’s the same love that’s always been there, but a new love when you finally accept it. When you finally realize that the love you’ve been given is the one forever permanent infinite eternal presence that never changes, the shore you recognize instantly when you swim to it, with those same landmarks on the beach, the rock, the tree, the same feeling of sweet sand under your wet feet, the same warmth overwhelming you as you wash ashore and come home, the same balm of compassion, forgiveness, and redemption.
It’s the same love that affects you differently each time you feel it, each time you break yourself open to it, each time you allow yourself to experience its fullness, risk its ravages and ravishes, and let it flow into and through and out of your heart, altering your heart…
… permanently…
… infinitely …
… eternally…
Originally published on Tom Aplomb
Photo courtesy of author