In truth there is no such thing in man’s nature as a settled and full resolve either for good or evil, except at the very moment of execution.
\n~ Nathaniel Hawthorn<\/p>\n
New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
~ Mark Twain<\/p>\n
In life’s small things be resolute and great
\n To keep thy muscle trained: knowst thou when Fate
\n Thy measure takes, or when she’ll say to thee,
\n “I find thee worthy; do this deed for me?”
\n~ James Russell Lowell, Epigram<\/p>\n
Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
\n~ Oscar Wilde<\/p>\n
Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
\n~ Benjamin Franklin<\/p>\n
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
\nRing, happy bells, across the snow:
\nThe year is going, let him go;
\nRing out the false, ring in the true.
\n~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson<\/p>\n
I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.
\n~ Ana\u00c3\u00afs Nin<\/p>\n
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
\nAnd next year’s words await another voice.
\nAnd to make an end is to make a beginning.
\n~ T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”<\/p>\n
Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.
\n~ Thomas Mann<\/p>\n
But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year-old habits.
\n~ Andre Gide<\/p>\n
Still, I do have one resolution. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and Rosei’s post<\/a> gave me the occasion to put it into words: <\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m resolving to bring more energy and positivity into my life. My natural tendency is to be somewhat critical and melancholy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m comfortable with that. However, in the last year or two I have noticed that the anger level is rising, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not comfortable with that. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how to deal with it, and it wears me down. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also pretty useless, since most of the things that anger me are beyond my control to change (except in very small ways\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6). <\/p>\n I used to be able to bring energy and comfort in with prayer, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really work for me anymore. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m adding some affirming messages to my daily meditations – with themes of gratitude, awareness and mindfulness, cosmic connection, energy, self-acceptance, etc. It’s a little Stuart Smalley<\/a>, but that’s…. o-kay. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only a very modest kind of resolution, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one I may be able to keep, unlike a few others that come to mind (smile).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In truth there is no such thing in man’s nature as a settled and full resolve either for good or evil, except at the very moment of execution. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorn New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~ Mark Twain In life’s small things be resolute and great To keep thy muscle trained: knowst thou when Fate Thy measure takes,…<\/p>\n