Begin here and now Meaningful New Year

Lionel Wijesiri

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

- Edith Lovejoy Pierce - (1904-1983) Twentieth Century poet and pacifist

Today, as I look for ways to be a more balanced individual in year 2011, my first thought is to re-start the exercising program. That is a nice thought, isn’t it? It’s also true that my time could be better scheduled in the mornings and then I might have more time for all those things I didn’t get around to doing in 2010. However, when I visualize the whole picture more rationally, those little things do not bother me as much as one particular item: I realize that I didn’t give to charities or give my time to anyone besides my family and friends this year.

There was always an excuse. I didn’t know which charities were legit or which would best serve the community or the world at large. I didn’t have time to join a cause that would make a difference in other people’s lives, especially if it meant getting out of my comfort zone. My family also didn’t have as many financial resources as we did the year before, but deep down I know those are still just excuses.

Today, when I am contemplating for a meaningful New Year, I realize it starts with giving. Not just my time and resources to family and friends, although they are important, but to extend a part of my resources to those who I don’t know, but care about (or should care about). When I read my religious scripture I get the impression that the fatherless, widowed, homeless and orphans should especially be close to my heart.

Balanced New Year

Yet the question remains - how do I reach out to these people in need? I’m talking not just about people with monetary needs, but spiritual needs. (My new neighbours come to mind, but again I ask, how do I reach out? They don’t exactly come across as friendly, considerate people so it is easy to wish they weren’t there and just ignore them and not care). But that is not the way I was taught.

So, in essence, my goal for having a more balanced, meaningful New Year in 2011 is that I would find ways that would cause me to reach out and give my time and resources to people beyond my friends, family and business connections. That is what would make a Meaningful New Year for me. The thought reminds me of a short poem by George Eliot in To Make This Life Worthwhile (by the way, George Eliot’s real name was Mary Anne Evans who was a great English novelist and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era). She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works were taken seriously.

“May every soul that touches mine- Be it the slightest contact,Get there from some good, Some little grace; one kindly thought;One aspiration yet unfelt; One bit of courageFor the darkening sky; One gleam of faithTo brave the thickening ills of life; One glimpse of brighter skiesBeyond the gathering mists- To make this life worthwhile.”

Begin here

Let me now turn to the opportunity that the New Year offers to us as individuals. Many of us have become cynical about making New Year’s resolutions that prove to be unattainable and consequently a source of self-reproach rather than self-improvement. Nevertheless, I would like to pass along a bit of guidance given by Forrest Church. Here is his advice for those of us who want to make a positive change in our lives

1. Begin here. How deeply would you long for all the things you take for granted, if suddenly you lost them. So much of what we want we have already, so want what you have.

2. Begin now. You have everything you need. Yes, Everything! Plus the bonus of today, one day more than you will have if you wait until tomorrow.

3. Begin as you are. At your fingertips is a treasure trove of memories and dreams. Put one good memory together with one good dream and you are ready to begin. (Good memories are memories that make you feel good about yourself. Good dreams are the stuff of which tomorrow’s good memories are made.)

4. Begin by doing what you can. No more, but also no less. Don’t throw yourself against the wall. Walk around it. You can’t do the impossible, but so much is possible. So many of the things you haven’t tried you still can do. To get around the wall, you can set out in either direction - the wall has two ends. The important thing is to start walking.

5. Begin with those are closest to you. They can cheer you on only if you let them. Invite them to give you a hand...lend you a hand...and to take your hand - no one can take your hand if you bury it in your pocket. You say they won’t cheer you on, help you out, or take your hand? Maybe not, but how will you know without asking?

6. Begin by turning the page. Today you can open a new chapter of your life. If you are trapped in your story (stuck in place, botching the same old lines), revise the script. Practice a new line or two...Resist the temptation to wallow over some dark passage until you know exactly what went wrong. You never will. Besides, perfection is not life’s goal. Neither is unnecessary pain. If you are stuck, open a new chapter.

7. Begin by cleaning up your slate. Don’t erase the past. File it by experience, to keep it handy should you need it. But don’t obsess over it. Ticking off a growing list of grievances gets you nothing from life’s store. As for the things on your “To Do” list that you’ll probably never do, place them under a statute of limitations. When they serve no longer to inspire but only to haunt you, cross them off...

8. Begin by looking for new questions – not old answers. Answers close doors. Questions open them. Answers lock us in place. Questions lead us on adventures...The more questions we have the further we can see.

9. Begin with little regard for where your path may lead. Destinations are overrated. And never what we imagine. Even should we somehow manage to get where we are heading, we won’t end up there. Until life ends, no destination is final. In fact, the best destinations are those we look back upon as new beginnings. Good journeys always continue. So don’t be driven by desire (that empty place within you), never to rest until you reach your goal. Invest your joy in the journey.

10. Begin in the middle. Our lives will end mid-story, so why not begin there? Don’t wait around for the perfect starting pistol or until you are ready. You may never be ready. No reason to wait in the grandstand for some official to guide you to the gate. Jump the fence. Enter the race in the middle.

As we look backward and forward at the beginning of 2011, let me invite you to focus not on your regrets from the past but on your possibilities for the future. That is what I am going to do. In that spirit, let me wish you not so much a ‘happy’ New Year but a meaningful New Year.

“What we call a beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time”.

(T S Eliot, arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century)