Starting the New Year Without New Year's Resolutions: Try It

(Last year's first post of the New Year made so much sense, we'll bring it back for 2023.)

We're beginning the new calendar year with a suggestion for a fine way, if not the best way to start this New Year 2023.

Most of us are likely back at work after taking some time off between Christmas and New Year's. Some of us may have one or more of those "New Year's Resolutions" percolating. They're supposed to give us a good jump start on the New Year - I think.

I think because I gave up the New Year's Resolution business a while back. The purpose of these things escapes me. They're lost in the mist of the past. And good riddance. They never worked anyway - at least they never did for me. So I dropped 'em. 

The not-working part happened thusly: I make the resolution, think about it and try my hand at it for - oh, let's say - a few weeks. At that point, I'm either struggling with a resolution that was too ambitious; you know, something like I'm going to work 25 hours a day so I can double my business within 6 months. Or I'd lose interest in some silly or trivial trivial resolution, something like: I'm going to lose 10 pounds in the next month. Silly or trivial because, even if I lost the weight, what of it? It's not like I was particularly overweight. So the 10 pounds boiled down to a meaningless challenge combined with vanity. Sheesh!

Why not consider a special spiritual resolution?, you might say. Sure, why not? But didn't we just hone our spiritual exercises during Advent? And won't we do so again, maybe more intensely, during Lent - which lingers not too far down the road. We Catholics who observe the liturgical year (and we all should) already have and will perform those "special" exercises at the appropriate times. No need for a "New Year's Resolution" for the spiritual life. At least that's how I see it. 

So what's left? Just ignore the new calendar year? Ah, but why waste the newness and freshness that comes with any thing that appears for the first time? And isn't that what a new year is? Not only does it appear for the first time. But it appears for the first and only time. We only get one 2023 - ever. Not just we who are alive and kicking now, but all of humankind past, present, and future. One and only one 2023.

We can take a fresh look at things. I like to do this anyway every once in a while. It prevents the grinding sameness that can make daily activity stale, even boring. At work, I depend on my routines to keep the work flowing consistently. I've developed valuable habits that allow me to handle repetitious tasks without having to spend inordinate time and effort. But I still like to step back and take a fresh look now and then to see if I can cull useless activity or finely tune a routine to get better results in less time. 

We can do this in our spiritual life from time to time as well. 

Here's a proposal for this Year of Our Lord 2023. And it will apply both to our activities at work, as well as all our activities anywhere, anytime. We look to Our Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception. Nothing, or rather no one, newer or fresher has ever graced God's Creation. Like this unique year 2022, Our Blessed Mother came into the world in time. Unlike 2023 her life will never end. This passage from The Inner Life of the Soul regarding The Immaculate Conception will help us find a new and fresh approach to our daily lives, to our daily work.

And while the rest and peace that come with the thought of her, more and more quietly and intensely fill our souls grown tranquil in her presence, " as one whom his mother comforteth," — let us beg of her to obtain of God for us that inestimable gift, a perfect oneness of our will with His will, till at last our every movement also shall proceed like hers from the Holy Ghost, and our hearts shall become, in their love and purity and meekness, humble copies of her spotless heart, which from the first was the very temple of Deity, the immaculate palace of the God of holiness, the true Holy of Holies on earth.

Would that our every movement this day and all our days might proceed like hers, following the light and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Would that our hearts become humble copies of her spotless heart in their love and purity and meekness.

Imagine starting this New Year in this fashion. It very well may be the best way to start 2023. 

Happy New Year!