Turning heads and hearts

Like many, I began thinking about the New Year a few weeks ago and compiled a list of ways I wanted to change and grow in 2014. In the past, I have had varying degrees of success with resolutions, but I still get excited when looking to the future and imagining what could come from a new start. Each year, my excited heart beats with increased hope, but, with my inevitable stumbles, I often lose faith by March and can’t remember one goal or resolution by June.

This year I’m trying something new. I am being kinder to myself. Yes, I still have a list of things I want to do, or not do, but instead of using the list as a personal ruler to measure and judge, I have decided to think of the list and my hope for change in a new way. 

This year, I have made only one resolution: to turn my head and heart in a different direction.  The items on my list are not the focus, the new direction is.  Like a finger pointing, I am to follow its guidance and not focus on the finger itself. As a result, I may not achieve some or all of the things on my list with perfection, but, if I use them to guide me, I will “stumble in the right direction,” as they say in the rooms of recovery. The stumbling, I believe, is not nearly as important as the right direction.

So, as we begin our journey through a new year, I wonder if it might serve us all well to step back from the this and that’s on our list of resolutions and ask a more fundamental question: In what direction do we wish to head this year? I suspect if we turn our heads and hearts in a new direction, many of the things on our list will be achieved.