As always, my list of New Year's resolutions is long. Just like every year, the same old things keep showing up on my list of items I want to change ... I could probably write a book on all the resolutions that I'd like to accomplish, but it would have to be fiction, since few of them actually ever materialize.
Get organized, read more, lose weight, exercise more, write more letters, keep in closer contact with faraway friends, practice patience, be more optimistic ... it's an endless list I keep close to my heart, and every year about this time, they tend to resurface — hoping there's a breath of a chance that I'll let them breathe in my world and give them a chance to survive. It's usually about the middle of January when I realize I've stuffed those goals into the back of my mind — hoping I'll allow them to resurface before the year comes to an end ... or at the very least, at the start of the next new year, which gives me about 11 and a half months to get it all together again.
Funny how that happens. Our best intentions to change or mend our ways is difficult, and I'm not sure why. I wake up every morning with thoughts of many of those resolutions, but somehow I let life get in the way of all the things I need to do for myself, rather than someone else. While I guess that's not a bad thing to think of others, I know deep down I have to take care of myself first before I can help take care of others.
And so another year begins, and I'm left thinking about what I want to change most in 2016. Like I said, there's a plethora of things I need to work on, but instead, my heart tends to lead me into a scattered mess of oblivion, where I have trouble sorting out which resolution should take priority over the next. Obviously, the aforementioned list is too long to tackle in one year, so I'm left with the futile attempt to choose one or two things from the list to really work on and master. Hmmmm ... which one or two things do I really think I can tackle this year?
I'd be kidding myself — and you too — if I decided on one or two of those resolutions. People much smarter than me have taken polls; studied those who make, keep and/or kick resolutions to the curb; and attempt to change their ways at the beginning of a new year. Why those resolutions are so difficult to keep, I'm not sure, but perhaps instead of looking at what we need to personally change, we should concentrate on a bigger picture — a broader more inclusive picture that encompasses more than just ourselves.
With 2016 just a few days away, I'm thinking about our world as a whole — not just my comparatively tiny corner of life, but our towns and villages, our county, our country, our nation and our world. What if instead of attempting to change those things about ourselves, we had the insight ... and the foresight to think about each other — not from a political or personal point of view, but from a heartfelt perspective that speaks of kindness ... and bottom line, just being nice.
I know what you're thinking. There she goes again. That Terri Simon is such a dreamer ... like kindness and being nice are going to make a difference in this mess of a world we call home. And you're probably right ... but that's not going to keep me from wishing and hoping for a place in time where we treat each other with kindness, respect. It's not going to keep me from remembering there are two sides to everyone's story, and it's clearly not going to keep me from dreaming of a place where we offer the basic element of being nice to those we meet along our way.
Shedding pounds, getting more exercise, writing more letters ... those are wonderful things, but personally, I think it's time we set our goals a bit loftier and work on the ways we treat each other.
Be kind. Be nice. Be understanding ... Now those are resolutions I can keep.
May 2016 be a happy and healthy one for each and every one of you, my friends.
Putnam County Record Editor Terri Simon can be reached at tsimon@putnamcountyrecord.com.