Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: New Year (05/09/05)
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TITLE: New Year's Diet | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jonna Turek
05/14/05 -
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Although we celebrate the first day of January as the official New Year’s Day in modern times, previous cultures marked the turn of the year on a variety of different dates, while many mothers of schoolchildren consider the first day of school in the fall to be their “new year”.
The concept of the New Year was devised by men to mark the end of the earth’s (or, for earlier civilizations, the sun’s) journey through the seasons and the beginning of a fresh cycle of growth and decay. The exact date was never more than an arbitrary selection, but whenever the accepted day, people have always tended to use the occasion to reflect on their lives and resolve to make improvements in the future.
Popular periodicals frequently include, in their holiday issues, articles about the New Year’s resolutions of well-known people. Almost without exception there will be someone on their list of interviewees who pooh-poohs the notion of New Year’s resolutions on the grounds that “no one ever keeps them.” And for the most part, unfortunately, that’s true. While some of us are able to stick to our new diets, exercise plans, or whatever the self-improvement goal, most of us have given up well before Easter. Many of us don’t even make it to President’s Day.
Almost everyone who makes a serious resolution, however, is able to keep it for at least one day. The evening of January 2nd finds many of us glowing with a self-satisfaction that seldom lasts through many more days. But, for that one day, we are able to stick to the new regimen and it feels good. That’s why we are so hopeful when the next New Year rolls around, even though we often make the same resolution we failed at the previous year. Even spiritual New Year’s resolutions tend to follow the same pattern.
Perhaps the crux of the problem is that a year is just too long. In January, the next December seems a lifetime away. That seems to be the thinking behind both the “one day at a time” and the “today is the first day of the rest of your life” philosophies. Although apparently contradictory, both are valid viewpoints and can be combined. How about looking at each new day as the first day of a personal new year? One to be savored, thoughtfully, one day at a time?
Every night we can resolve that on the morrow we will do “the next right thing” with whatever God presents us. We can also look back on the last 24 hours and review how well we did.
Almost anyone can keep a resolution for just one day.
The fact that one’s life consists of a series of single moments is one of God’s great gifts to humanity. When we try to live our lives in great greedy gulps, instead of the tidy bites God sets out, we inevitably end up looking ill-mannered, at best, or else sputtering, choking, and making a mess of our lives. Think about how hard it is to enjoy a meal eaten on the run. Food is shoveled in, partially chewed, and gulped down. We feel unsatisfied, almost as if we hadn’t eaten at all…except for the indigestion. Compare that experience with a meal eaten leisurely, in peaceful surroundings and with pleasant company and you begin to see my point.
God serves up life, beautifully prepared, fresh every morning. This New Year, how about taking the time and effort to savor every bite?
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