My First Resolution

                                                  Happy New Year!

For last year's words

belong to last year's language,

and next year's words

await another voice.

               T.S. Eliot

I have never written new year's resolutions, as intriguing as it might be to believe so much of everything is within our personal control. Perhaps the dismal statistics on the longevity of most of these resolutions was enough to put me off.  Maybe I doubted my own staying power too especially as it pertains to matters of weight or exercise, the most common things that people resolve to improve. Maybe I was forestalling what I was sure would be a failure. 
 A brand new year is certainly good timing for a new beginning.  It offers the perfect opportunity to try to shed old habits and start new ones.  Easier said than done, for sure.  Nowadays experts say it is more effective to set specific goals that represent baby steps while focussing on the positive.  I really like The Original Credo of Al-Anon which is always published in the Dear Abby column at this time of year.  It is made up of eight resolutions each representing small steps and prefaced by "Just For Today". 
If I wrote a "Just For Today" resolution for myself it would have to be not to obsess or worry so much about the future.  And with that I may have just written my first new year's resolution.