Jan 02 2009
New Year’s Resolutions
Oh, the horrible cliche: writer writes about new year’s resolutions the day after New Year’s. Breathe. I want to do it differently this year. Maybe you should too.
First, the Wiccan side of things. As a Wiccan, what does New Year’s really mean to us? Didn’t we have our New Year’s bash in October? Well, yes, we did. Samhain (celebrated October 31st and meaning Summer’s End) is one of the two main “doorways” in the Wiccan calendar. For Wiccans, the year is divided into two main parts: light and dark. The New Year begins at the close of summer because an integral part of the Wiccan religion is understanding that new beginnings come from the greatest dark. The tarot card Death does not represent death, it represents rebirth.
Having just passed the Winter Solstice, a few Wiccans out there are probably scratching their heads. Well, if the darkest night brings about new beginnings, why isn’t the New Year celebrated December 21st? That’s a very good question, actually. It relates to harvest time and the cycle of the God and the Goddess. According to Wiccan mythos, the time between Samhain and December 21st (the actual longest, darkest night of the year) is a gestation period. During this time the God is developing within the Goddess. He is reborn on December 21st. The time between these two dates is, in a way, the darkest time: will the God really be reborn?
It’s difficult to think of this with the global warming happening today, but even a couple of years back I can remember the cold, horrible dread of surviving November. The extended period of waiting marks the tentative beginning of the Wiccan New Year. At Samhain Wiccans celebrate the end of a summer of hard work and a good, final harvest of the year and at Yule (December 21st, the Winter Solstice) Wiccans celebrate the return of the Light. The God is reborn and things can only get better from there.
Now, for the Wiccans: January 1st as New Year’s fits into this perfectly. Instead of thinking of it in the strictest sense as the “new year” (we already celebrated that), think of it as the celebration of the return of the light. For me the time between October 31st and December 21st is a time of planning. What do I want to do? What is within my means to do in the coming year? How can I extend those means?
I breathe a sigh of relief at Yule. In the few days after I truly am filled with joy. The winter can only last so long. The longest day is behind me. Working early shifts I am overjoyed to see the sun peek out at me just after 7. The time between Yule and January 1st is my holiday. I, with the rest of North America and the Western world, suspend everything for two weeks. I eat, drink and am merry, not just because of the gifts but because I can see the sun returning. I feel re-energized as I see the sun coming up earlier.
January 1st marks the end of my holiday. January 1st is time to put down the wine and cheese, find a belt buckle to keep my pants shut until I can make it to the gym and buckle down my life as well. I have my plans and I set out to change the world (well, my world at least).
If you haven’t gotten a head start on planning, that’s okay. Keep it in mind for next year. Or you may have already done this sort of thing in your head over the past few months. Either way, the New Year doesn’t have to be grandiose. This year I am taking a decidedly non-grandiose way of going about this whole New Year’s resolutions thing: I am going to make small changes.
We’ve all heard it again and again and again and again: baby steps; Rome was not built in a day; small changes pile up into a big changes. We know. We really do know but most of us still fail to put it into practice.
Today, resolve to do one small thing for the next week. For me it will be feeding my cat before me every day for the next week. I know it sounds terrible, but sometimes I forget to feed the poor guy before I rush out to work and he doesn’t get fed until whenever I get home (which can be 2 p.m., 5 p.m. or even 11 p.m.–I’m part-time so my schedule is always different). I love him to pieces and I feel horrible about it. My resolution for the next week is to make sure he comes first. I’m not resolving to groom, bathe and powder him every morning. I’m not resolving to read him bedtime stories. All I’m resolving to do is to make sure he eats before I eat my breakfast.
How does that fit into my larger plans? How is it going tochange my world? It doesn’t matter. I could claim that my larger plan this year is to resolve to be more selfless, but I would be lying. Sure, it would be great to be more selfless, but does that then mean that at the end of the year I can put aside being selfless and move onto something else? I should hope not. In Wicca it is encouraged that we always continue growing. Part of this means not looking at an overall plan for the year (e.g. being selfless) but taking baby steps every day, not just for the two weeks after New Year’s, but the entire year–every year. That seems huge in itself, but pretend I didn’t say that for now. Just set out and take your baby steps for the week.
I’d love to hear from you. What will your baby steps be this week?
