Resolving to Face 2018 Together

Resolution:  great determination. What do your “great determinations” for 2018 look like? My resolutions include courage, wisdom, and kindness.

I am determined, first, to demonstrate greater courage. Aristotle writes, “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.” You need courage to accept and reveal your un-retouched self—to speak up, to be vulnerable. Without courage, you cannot be whole. Courage shrugs in the face of those who would redesign you. You arrived ready for your journey. Trust yourself. Life isn’t supposed to be easy, but you’ve been coached. Courage is faith.

Wisdom is my next resolution. Wisdom begins with reliable information that has to change as we constantly refresh it. A good education contributes to wisdom but never guarantees it, because you can’t be wise without maturity and integrity. Wisdom never mocks, and it isn’t afraid to admit being wrong. Human information is filtered through manmade beliefs that can distort even simple truths. It’s okay to be wrong, but it’s not okay to know you’re wrong and squat in your misunderstanding. We were sent with flaws and given the tools to rise above them. We don’t achieve wisdom, but we stretch toward it, growing as plants grow toward the sun. Wisdom is hope.

I substitute the word kindness for love, because love is often misused. Love requires both wisdom and courage, because it’s an act, not merely a feeling. We DO love. We know when we’ve averted our eyes when we should’ve stared life right in the face. Love insists we DO UNTO OTHERS—not talk, not hope, not fantasize, but DO. Opportunities to be kind crowd around us every day. They are sometimes easy to fulfill and sometimes they demand sacrifice. Kindness is love made manifest. For an empathetic introvert, it’s the most intimidating assignment.

I wish I could tell you I know HOW I’m going to execute my determinations. I don’t yet. I trust I’ll figure it out as I repeat my resolutions to myself:  Be brave as you express yourself. Seek wisdom. Act out of kindness. I expect 2018, like all years I suppose, to be a dark and thorny path. As I’ve said before, this is no time to lie back and let someone else run your life. This is a time to embrace your transformation into more than you have been before. No one is immune to the challenge. Some will rise and some will fall. As always.

My New Year’s wish for you is for you to rise into your resolutions and be glad to be you. May your path be decorated with moments of beauty and joy. May the exquisite brilliance of life illumine your way.

Thanks for being with me this past year. I hope we can be stronger by walking together into the unknown. It’s an adventure, after all!