Creating Harmony

It’s January 22, 2014 and I may be among the few on the planet who haven’t yet caught the “New Year’s Resolution” fever—meaning I have not written goals, ambitions, promises, challenges, or lists for 2014.

For the most part my birthday is the time when I look at what’s working and what’s not—one age tucked away and another one out in front—always felt right. Goals are living breathing documents…so nope didn’t re-write them with a new date attached. The New Year (minus resolutions) arrived and went but after writing 1/21/14 on an anniversary card for Jimmy, the swift passage of time seeped in.

The last year slipped past so fast I wonder if I was conscious, well I was, but I mean really conscious.

Perhaps a shift in my thinking is in order, a new look at an old tradition, the making of New Year Resolutions.  Resolution somehow doesn’t fit what I am after, it is seemingly incongruent to the vision I have in mind for this year.

When in a conundrum over words I almost always feel the need to consult the dictionary for memorialized definitions. As soon as I do, I immediately fall in love with the musical application for the word resolution:

Resolution: Music .

a. the progression of a voice part or of the harmony as a whole from a dissonance to a consonance.

b. the tone or chord to which a dissonance is resolved.

Hmm. Pardigm shift.

A progression of a voice part or of the harmony as a whole from a dissonance to a consonance…in a way perhaps that is what the past year was for my writing voice, I just hadn’t known to define it.

But there is more—a year is smack-dab in the headlights.

Harmony after all is beautiful—what would a resolution to achieve harmony look, sound, feel, and taste like? The year of achieved harmony (has a ring to it) I am seeking clarity—a way to express what I feel so that later I may point to it and say “that’s it.”

Harmony is a point where all notes coalesce—if applied to my life then multiple facets of it are not just tossed to chance, there must be intention, an effort to strike the right note.

Again, what does that look, sound, feel, and taste like? It is many things—and I will bet that it will evolve—but, here goes:

• Approach each day with a grateful heart—grateful for;  a loving marriage, healthy engaged children, a sweet dog, safety, a body that moves and is disease and (mostly) pain free, friends near and far, a home that provides a sanctuary of sorts, freedom to express myself, work that has meaning, purpose and brings me joy.
• Opportunities to be with nature will abound—I will sleep under a star lit sky often, walk miles of our coast line, be still enough to hear the call of birds, be awake when the sun graces us with another day filled with warmth and light. Find less concrete, more dirt under the soles of my shoes…or walk shoeless on sand, booted on rocks…all of it.
• Practice nourishing both body and soul by design—
• The body—plan meals ahead, buy local, remember cloth bags, use fresh ingredients, and plant something edible in a pot.
• The soul—what I choose to fill my mind with is a choice. Seek out individuals who are actively making a difference, involved, doing. Attract people who are committed to living an examined life.
• Read, sing, stretch, meditate, run, walk, laugh, cry, smile, volunteer and be generous. Cultivate and grow the spirit of abundance—lift up others and celebrate what they offer.

I am in the present…allowing the moment to simply unfold and exist because it is now, a gift of time, that as soon as it passes will be a memory made richer for the living sewn into it.