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Sunday, January 11, 2009

A Neverending Story

Since I haven't updated this journal in so long, I decided to take a look at it and do a little redesigning. Like everything else in life, it needed an update, a new look, a fresh face. It may change again, at another time, it may look totally different. But making these changes in this journal, as in life, is sometimes necessary.

And that brings me to my New Year's resolutions. It's a time to say I, too, want an update. I, too, want a fresh face, a new look for the world to see. The changes don't always last, the traditional ones keep coming back every year: lose weight, eat healthy, exercise more. The lack of success in one year doesn't eliminate the possibility of change in the new year, so we keep including these resolutions.

Some may say it's foolish to make the same resolutions year after year after year when there's very little, if any, progress made on them. But is it foolish to try? Is it foolish to want to be better? Aren't we all just fallible humans who are just trying to go forward? And what is the alternative if we don't try? Do we give up?

In our own personal progression, our own growth, trying is necessary. It's a sign to ourselves, a sign to everyone else, that we want to improve, we want to make ourselves better, we care that our world be a little better. We may not always succeed. We may fail horribly. But maybe, somewhere along the way, we achieve a little victory that makes it all worthwhile. Maybe we learned something about eating better. Maybe while we still eat things we know we shouldn't, we've started to buy more locally grown foods, and thereby helped local farmers stay in business. Maybe we're walking to the store, getting exercise and creating less emissions into the air we breathe. Maybe we're carrying our own cloth bag to the store to get our junk food, and eliminating all those plastic bags.

Success isn't measured by how many of our resolutions are kept. Success is measured by those little steps, those small gestures that don't seem to mean much if taken alone. Success is measured by the fact that we keep making resolutions, that our will is there to be better, to improve ourselves and our world. My New Year's wish to you is that this neverending story continue and blossom and thrive. For if we stop, if we give up on improving ourselves, all is lost.

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