Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Marie Monroe

 

Out of the mouths of babes…

 

A friend recently told me a story about a little boy who, in the spirit of this holiday season, declared that he was making his New Year’s Revolutions.  I loved that and resolved to take that meaning and intent as my own in the New Year.  Ever since hearing that story I have thought about what a personal revolution would mean in my own life.  Even more, what would multiple personal revolutions mean?!

 

It’s been only a couple of weeks, but this story has become a touchstone of sorts in my thinking.  I find myself turning it over in my mind from time to time, trying to understand it more.  It’s become a sort of holiday meditation for me that I do anywhere:  in traffic, at work, standing in check-out lines.

 

New Year’s Revolutions…

 

Re-Inventing Ourselves

As I’ve meditated on this little boy’s understanding of what one does in the New Year, I’ve returned again and again to the idea of re-inventing myself and my life.  I think of revolution, personal revolution, as a way of turning things upside down in order to create a new and better life, be a new and better version of who I want to be.  It has been an exciting and interesting way to think of what I want and how I might grow.

 

I’ve decided, with that little boy’s inadvertent help, that re-inventing ourselves is growth and more, that annual re-invention is a way that I can align myself with the cycle of nature.  I like those ideas.  They seem wise, balanced and well, natural.

 

More than Change

I’ve also decided that a true personal revolution will jettison us into a new life.  Revolution is far more than change.  It is a total revamping of the nature and order of things.  Revolution discards previous thinking and worldviews.  It is a new world and a new way of being in the world.

 

As I considered the word itself—revolution—I realized that it is also the turning of an object on an axis.  It is the spinning of the earth and the cycling of natural cycles.  In this sense, I think, revolution has a central constant around which everything else moves.  I can be, I’ve decided, the constant axis around which a new life will revolve.

 

It has always seemed very fitting to me to take this time in the dark, dormant days of winter to review who I am, what I’ve done and where I’ve been.  Now, thinking in terms of revolution, I’ve moved deeper into the notion of New Year’s resolutions.  I’ve gone past the lose weight, be more social, work less and exercise more thinking.  I find myself empowered with the knowledge that I can plan who I want to be, what I want to do and where I want to go in the coming seasons.  I can pass through my current circumstances just as the earth spins and the season’s cycle.

 

For me, this is hope and a lesson in the transitory nature of any circumstances.

 

Faith in Myself

It is also a lesson in knowing that a part of me is constant and stable.  There is comfort in that for me.  There is also security and faith in me that I can alter many things and still be true, perhaps even truer, to who I really am.

 

As I think about leading a life in which personal revolution is possible, my mind sets off on exciting tangents.  I think of myself as germinating in this holiday season like the dormant seeds and plants. 

 

I think that somewhere deep in my natural workings, there is a mysterious and complex design in the making. 

 

I feel forces gathering that will push my new growth up into the light and warmth of the new seasons to come. 

 

I feel expectant, yearning for the spring and summer of my own revolutions.

 

Expectancy

That little boy, whom I’ve never met, has helped me remember some precious things. I remember my own childhood thinking, expectancy and beliefs.  I remember that anything is possible and that I am capable of doing and being anything. 

 

I remember awe.

 

New Year’s Revolutions…

 

My meditations on his words have taken me to some very uplifting and spiritual places in the last two weeks. I think of his vision and plan for the New Year and am also reminded of the Christmas story.  I see how his understanding perfectly embodies the spirit and reason for this Christmas season. I see that as we move out of our celebration of Christmas, we move naturally into our new beginnings.

 

In the story of this little boy who set out earnestly to create his New Year’s Revolutions, I have come to see that my own star shines brightly with hope and possibility.  My star guides me in this dark and dormant season.  I can follow that light to the birth of new hope for my world and myself.

 

Legacies

Since hearing his words, I’ve begun to believe that revolution, true revolution begins with me.  I look around at this work I do and consider what service I want to give, what legacy I want to leave.  I ask myself if all good things, like charity, don’t really begin at home.  I think of my life and myself, my thoughts, my actions and my values as my true home.

 

In this holiday season I want to go home.  I want to go deep inside to my true home…

 

So, this year I am steering myself in a new direction.  I am leaving behind the outer trappings of resolutions.  I am trying to go deeper than diet and exercise.  I am trying to find the guiding light that will lead me to true home, to who I truly am deep in my inspirations, desires and yearnings. 

 

How will it happen?  I’m not sure, but something seems to have happened already.  It started with that story about the little boy.  More and more I revisit it.  I try on his vision and his understanding and I get big rewards every time.  I feel young.  I feel hopeful.  I feel empowered.

Through his eyes the world seems to be a fertile, manageable, wonderful place.  People seem kinder.  We all seem on the verge of something great.

 

Interesting.

 

Out of the mouths of babes came my guiding light.  I am following it this holiday season.  I am keeping an eye on the light that little boy gave me.  As I transition from my Christmas celebration into the New Year, I will let you know where my star is taking me.

 

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”
-Gail Sheehy

 

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