This Year's Saying

It's not a New Year's resolution!

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. To me, this is the wrong time of year to be making big changes and starting something new. This is the dead of winter, a time of rest and reflection.

Come spring, when the energy of the natural world expands and begins moving again, I’ll think about changes.

Right now, I’m all about contemplation.

Every year for more than a decade, I’ve chosen a saying to use as the subject of a year-long meditation: an idea to keep in the back of my mind as I go about my daily life, something to think about in quiet moments, something to look for manifestations of in the Big World.

Over the years, I’ve had a variety of phrases and sayings, from “all life is one life” to “wherever you go, there you are.”

I usually start looking and listening for the upcoming year’s saying in late December. Something will usually pop up, typically more than once, and catch my attention. If it’s the right one, it will stick.

This year, a Paolo Coelho quote showed up, writ large (literally) in a Substack post by my friend and fellow writer Mariëlle S. Smith.

The saying?

If it’s still in your mind, it is worth taking the risk.

Those words really struck a chord with me.

To say that I’m not the world’s biggest risk-taker is a gross understatement. But it’s something I’m working on.

So this year, I’ll print those words out and tape them on the wall over my desk. I’ll think about them in the quiet moments in between other things.

And I’ll see what kind of a change they bring.

What will be your subject of contemplation for 2024?