I, along with countless others, celebrated the New Year with little fanfare and even less enthusiasm. And who could blame us? 2020 had us missing the previous decade (and toilet paper) something fierce, and 2021 (aside from getting a new administration in the White House) was little more than a continuation of the year prior, followed by increasing threats to our democracy and reproductive rights, more personal and political division surrounding the Covid vaccines, and increasing global warming related weather phenomena.
What used to be a night of embracing the hopes and possibilities of yet another trip around the sun, now has us tiptoeing towards the future with trepidation and skepticism.
But despite all this, I find myself coming back to the saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Think about it- the planet is dying and so are we. Now I’m not implying that we shouldn’t do all we can to stave off that inevitability, (or if you’re a billionaire, rocket to space), but the bottom line is that we don’t know how long we have, or exactly how things are going to end for us.
That was as true decades ago as it is today. The fact that all we have is this very moment- it is all we are guaranteed, has and will forever be a constant.
That said, it isn’t about a night of celebratory magic followed by hangovers and broken resolutions, it’s about what we do now, day in and day out to live this life to the fullest- to make the most of the minutes, hours, days and years we may have left. To me it’s about focusing on what’s within our control (ourselves) and surrendering to all that is not. The beautiful thing is that what is within our control can completely transform our lives and the lives of so many others: we can donate, volunteer, vote, protest, meditate, exercise, sing, dance, write that book, quit that dead-end job, learn that instrument and the list goes on and on. Surely the current state of things presents a compelling case to do just that!
Further still, knowing everything we know now, isn’t the scariest and most disheartening outcome of all, allowing Doomsday to continue to deny us our today? Now excuse me while I raise a glass to this!