New Year: Rejuvenation, Renewal And Rebirth
We are all in the habit of making New Year resolutions only to see them getting broken in a matter of days or weeks. These resolutions may centre around career, health, education or may be about overcoming certain bad habits. But doing without any goal is no answer. We ought to know where we are going! It is better to begin with some kind of target rather than entering the New Year with a blank mind. We can sort our lives into separate compartments and ensure that no area of living is neglected. Keeping physically fit by eating healthy food and exercising, improving finances through intelligent management of resources, taking steps for career advancement, eliminating unhealthy addictions, contributing in some way to the betterment of the community are some areas that can do with some attention.
Mental well-being is important. Take time out for prayer, meditation or fellowship. Bishop John H Vincent had got his resolution printed as follows: “I will this day try to live a simple, sincere and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety , discouragement, impurity and self-seeking, cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity , charity and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust and a childlike trust in God.“
As you enter the unknown future, you may need faith to meet its challenges. A faith that can move mountains, a hope that keeps you going and above all love which keeps all relationships well-oiled can be so helpful. “Life without love is a disaster,“ wrote German theologian Paul E Billheimer “The person who has made the most spectacular success but reaches life's end without learning love has totally failed. Do not envy those in the limelight of publicity , those with scintillating intellects or those who have accumulated great wealth and all that it affords. If one hasn't learnt to love in the process, his life is a disaster.“
Look for opportunities to express this love; you will find them in plenty . As you go along, sow seeds of empathy , compassion and encouragement; appreciate and motivate people to do their best, your year will be enriched thereby .
Our sense of righteousness is coloured by our selfishness, greed and pride and hence we should guard against these. Most conflicts among humans can be traced to a lack of concurrence on what constitutes righteousness.
Life is often measured by time, and those who waste time, are actually wasting life. The fading of the past year and the dawn of the New Year must alert us to the need to live every moment of it. Since life is short we must determine to `redeem time'. Procrastination, idleness and aimless drifting have proved to be very costly to many would-be achievers.
James Allen, spiritual writer, reminds us: “Every day is a new birth in time, holding out new beginnings, new possibilities and new achievements. The ages have witnessed stars in their orbits, but this day , no age hath witnessed. It is a new appearance, a new reality . It heralds a new life yea, a new order, a new society , a new age. It holds out new hopes, new opportunities, to all. In it you can become a new man, a new woman. For you it can be the day of regeneration, renewal, rebirth. From the old past with its mistakes, failures and sorrows, you can give rise to a new being, endued with power and purpose, and radiant with the inspiration of a new ideal.“
Om Namah Shivay
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