It’s that time of year again. The calendar is almost history, with just a few days of 2016 hanging around. A New Year implies a “new start,” or at least a resolution or two to give 2017 some focus and clarity.
Many feel that 2016 has been a Bad Year. Granted, some bad stuff has happened. In fact, a lot of bad stuff has happened. In my family alone we have had relatives with the following: stroke from brain anuryism; double mastectomy; life-changing spine surgery; disease that progressed to oxygen-dependence. And that’s just the medical bad news.
In Seal Beach we had a fire that closed the pier; the deaths of some prominent residents; and the administrative leave of our police chief.
However, I am an optimist, and believe that 2017 will be a Fantastic Year. I have high hopes for good things to happen in the next year, but I also believe that I have a responsibility to make that happen. Rather than sit back and wait for goodness, I will manufacture some of my own.
Making goodness happen means doing nice things for other people. There is nothing like service work to make me forget about my own problems. Ask anyone who works at the Community Thanksgiving Dinner at St. Anne Church how rewarding the experience is. Helping others is a gift that fills your heart.
What about making New Year’s resolutions? I used to make the same three every year; once I conquered losing weight and quitting drinking that left only saving more money and I must say that still eludes me.
When we lived in Nevada City (northern California, not Nevada) the thing to do at New Year’s was to have a “Word of the Year.” For example, I had a friend who started many projects but soon grew bored and didn’t ever finish anything. One year, she chose “completion” as her word. By focusing on that one word, it helped her to see her tasks through to the end.
One year I chose “forgiveness” and I worked on crushing resentments and letting angry feelings go. Nothing works 100 percent or all the time, but that was a very healing year for me.
I pick my Word of the Year on New Year’s Eve, so I can’t share mine yet, but I always enjoy the process of sifting through my bad habits and character defects and coming up with something that might make a bit of a shift in my life.
If a reality TV star can be elected President of the United States and Bob Dylan can win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, who can even imagine what 2017 will bring? Stay tuned.
Dixie Redfearn is editor of the Sun News.
