I no longer make explicit resolutions.
I have vague wishes: that this will be the year I meditate, or return to my college-level French, or finally read “Moby Dick.” Call my dad more.
But as I watch my children grow up, as children are the true signs of a year flying by, suddenly my son is almost face to face with me and my daughter can wear my shoes.
Suddenly I am the exact age my mother was when she left this Earth.
And all I want is more time. If I could decide to devote more time to myself, I would.
So I do what comforts me: I go to the dictionary and learn that the root for “resolution” is Latin. to analyzewhich means “to loosen, undo, release”.
Who knew?
sounds smooth, and just what I need, and maybe you too.
Maybe this new year can be a loosening.
CBS News
My dear Aunt Judy passed away last year, and what I wanted to keep from her was one of her prayer cards from her knitting circle. She was Catholic, from Boston, and used to curse saying things like, “Sweet Redeemuh!” And this card calls the Blessed Virgin Mary “Our Lady, Looser of Knots”. And ask for help to break free from entanglements and faith in the unfolding tape of our lives.
This is my resolution to myself, and I may speak to you:
To untie knots.
To allow our most twisted and intractable positions to be stretched.
Being willing to see things differently, which can allow us to see things we’ve never seen before.
Be so present now that we stop ruling the past and our white knuckles about the future.
And maybe this it’s how we make time slow down, even if it’s just a little.
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Story produced by Liza Monasebian. Publisher: Joseph Frandino.