Monday, March 03, 2008

A New Week Ahead

It's good that life is a cycle. Every day is a new day, every week and new week, every month a new month, every year a new year. In fact, if you think about it, every day is New Year's Day because today begins a 12 month period that will end on this day a year from now.

The word new is a good one because it means that we can change some things to make it different than it was before. Today, this week, this month, this year don't have to be the same as the last one if we don't want them to be.

Now, obviously, there are many things we can't change. I can't, for example, wake up this morning and say, "I'm going to do something new. I'm going to stop being a mother." Nor, can I move to a new town all the sudden .. well, you get the picture.

But today I can change one thing to make this new day a better one that yesterday. Maybe I decide to try, for one day, to not raise my voice once (a pretty significant challenge for me). Or maybe I can determine that each of my kids, even the most prickly, is going to get a good hug today -- that would be different from yesterday. Or perhaps, I could determine that I want to have a clean desk this week ... and clean it first thing.

The point I'm making is that we are not powerless to change things. Or maybe I just need to personalize it more and say that I am not powerless to change things I don't like. There is always something I can do to make things better than they were. The possibilities are endless. The only key is believing that I can change them, and taking steps forward to do so.

And so I'm thinking this morning, about one thing i can do this week to make things better than they were last week. I'm not sure yet what that might be, but the fact that I'm thinking about it takes me a lot farther towards change than the weeks I spent in a semi-depression thinking nothing would ever get better.

So, what are YOU going to change?

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