credit – el3mentsofwellness

At this time of year, it seems everyone resolves to DO something different, better, more. It feels like a set-up for failure, this demand that we start a new calendar year with forceful declarations of what we want to forget, leave behind, change, undo, redefine. I mean, look at what happens by March. A lot of discouraged folks walking around already defeated by their inability to make huge leaps into change.

Because that’s not how change happens.

It happens in baby steps. Moment by moment. All day, every day.

That’s why I like intention – ‘an aim or plan’ – rather than ‘the answer or solution’ of resolution.  Other definitions of resolution have more to do with fading away or ending – a clear moving away from rather than toward. Intention, on the other hand, also means ‘healing process of a wound’ which has a clear sense of ongoing change.

In last week’s inside writing group we incorporated a bit of both in the dual prompts ‘what I said to myself about myself at 16’ and ‘I am running into a new year’ (from lucille clifton’s poem). Women had the chance to resolve something by leaving it behind; and intend something going forward. I love KF’s clarity about herself at 16, and how she verbs her way into the year. Can you relate to her words?

SIXTEEN

When I was 16, I said I was smart. I was talented. I was tormented. I was struck. I could do anything I wanted and no one could stop me. I told myself to run, to take control of my own life. I told myself to be clean and  got clean. I was better than cocaine and I was less than perfect. I told myself faking it was not making it. I asked myself to give myself a chance and when I accepted my challenge and put hard work in, I became smarter. More talented, free. I was no longer tormented by my own ideas of perfection and I was finally happy. I loved myself at 16. I wish I was that girl again.

– – –

HITCHING A RIDE

I’m running into a New Year
trying to forget about the last,
not projecting my future;
learning from my past.

I’m skipping into a New Year
with a lightness in my heart,
a journey with no ending,
every day a new start.

I’m walking into a New Year,
a slow easy pace,
reminding myself it’s a marathon
not a one-legged race.

I’m dreaming into a New Year
with angels by my side,
knowing I’m a hitchhiker,
God has become my ride.

I’m smiling into a New Year.
The darkness is fading away
to morning sun that shows me
this New Year starts new each day.

KF