New Year & the other 364 special days

Happy New Year to all. We had plans to celebrate and greet the New Year with friends but from the wee hours of December 31st until the wee hours of this morning I sick with nasty bout of stomach 'flu. My only New Year's goals are 'be well, be gentle, be wise.'

I have a special fondness for the New Year's celebrations but my my life has also taught me that it is "just another day" in the most positive sense, meaning that this perspective on things is intended to bring all the other "not-New Year" days up to that higher level rather than downgrading "new year's day" in any way. With first light every day our slate is wiped clean and we're handed a new day to use in whatever way we're able to and choose to from the situation and circumstances in which we find ourselves. That's not to say our conditions are easy or simple or the way we wish them to be.

For a goal-oriented gal like myself the beauty in this is that it provides me with a way to stay in today, this 24 hours; to measure myself and my accomplishments in smaller segments. With this lifeway I can usually stay in today, knowing that again at first light tomorrow I can change or grow or choose more boldly or more in line with my values. Yesterday is gone, the new day is wide open for choices and values.

Traditionally, many folks use the twelve month calendar and January 1st as the marker for measuring accomplishments in the year past and setting goals for the year ahead. Honestly, when I need something broader or bigger than "one day at a time" I'd sooner choose a segment of time chosen by my heart, not the calendar - after all isn't the calendar only meant to help us get to appointments on the correct date? Or more importantly how to gather at the same time to celebrate birthdays, marriages, passages? I don't believe calendar time is the best measure for who or where we are in our lives. I'd rather choose to measure increments of my life by the cycles of the moon or the seasons - like this: what did I accomplish in the Fall, when the leaves on the trees were turning gold and red? Listening to my heart or spirit or wiser self I can ask, what were the most meaningful accomplishments I remember from when the sumac was blazing scarlet? Marking time this way connects me to the Earth, all living things and the cycle of life outside calendar time.

A peaceful and balanced 2008 to us all.