New Year

It is so funny how TV commercials right after New Years are for gym memberships, buying physical training equipment, joining Weight Watchers, and getting control of your finances with one instition or another. A lot of people make the New Year's resolution to lose weight, get organized, find a way to make more money, plan a budget, get in shape - anything to improve themselves. I find it odd. I don't make New Year's resoltions. Seems silly to me. If I want to lose weight or get in shape why would this year be any different than last year. Is there something magical about a New Year which will improve my chances of knowing how to use E-Trade. I think I am more a seasonal person. The first day of spring is a new beginning. A resolution at that time makes more sense to me. Fall is a time to assess where I am and decide what changes I need to make. Winter is about the Holidays - which I love. People are nicer during the holidays. Why we don't continue this behavior all through the year...well that I can't explain. Given the state of most citizens of the United State, you would think being nice to one another would make sense. And why do we need tragedies to bring us together? Why are we not pulling together every day? Perhaps, if we were nicer to one another, and if we all pulled together every day - maybe we would not have some of these tragedies. I just don't understand mean people. Why be mean, discourteous, petty, or angry? My saying; we are all moving our rocks from one side of the road to the other. Ya know what I mean? We are in the same boat. If we pulled at the same time rowing the boat would be a lot easier. It just makes no sense. Back to the season - summer...how grand is summer? As a teacher having summer vacation is splendid. Of course there are many people who believe teachers having a summer vacation makes them unprofessional and not worthy of earning more money - that balloon is easily popped when you look at the number of vacation days top executives have there is not much difference. Should we not examine the importance of educating our children? The teacher in the classroom is so important. The United States ranks lowest per capita in all academic areas. We cannot be a great nation if we do not invest in our children. Thus attracting and keeping individuals to the teaching profession should be important - paying them top dollar is a no brainer. I digress. Resolutions - changing your life is up to you - every day is an opportunity to change. Each morning, if you wake up, then the opportunity for change is there.You decide what you are going to do. We do not need to change as much as we think we do. We need to grow. Change on the other hand, well it seems to me we would change if we could. There are a lot of treadmills collecting dust in the basement or storage closet. 2013, it is a new year - but isn't every day "new?" Each hour, is that not new? We will write 2012 on our checks, or papers for a while. In time we will write 2013. It is another year, we are still who we were last year, and the year before that, and the year before that - the only difference is how much did we grow in 2012? Growth is positive. Self examination and spiritual check ups are good. Reckon I just believe the power of people is more than we think it is. Sometimes it goes untapped - yet I believe it is there. People are good and kind even if they don't always exhibit behavior that indicates their kindess or goodness. Every one of us has had a bad day. We all make mistakes - change though - that happens when there are great highs or deep lows. Catastrophic events change us; do we grow from such times? Do we become better people? How we deal with grief or happiness...this is who we are. And that is OK. No one is perfect, that is alright. Cut yourself some slack in 2013, takes steps towards growth - that is a resoluton worth maintaining.