I have been struggling with writing my New Year’s post. I do not want to write about New Year’s resolutions. Frankly, the subject has been exhausted. What I do find interesting is how a new year signifies a beginning, and a beginning is most often a blank slate!

A blank slate means just that—nothing yet has been written, said, or with finality, decided. It’s fresh; there is an unknown quality to a brand new year. We are often uncomfortable with the unknown, so perhaps that’s why we quickly fill the blank slate with clutter. Often the clutter looks like a list of resolutions, a series of decisions to do or not to do. We just can’t stay in the moment, waiting and watching and letting the New Year unfold.

Maybe a new year conjures up for us a need to get busy solving problems, mending fences, or settling scores. So we make plans, enumerating each way that we might “fix” what is broken in us or around us. Having resolve centers on “getting to the bottom” of something or finding out answers at all costs. Is this any way to start a new year?

Last month we were content to wait. We wanted to experience and celebrate our family, friends and most importantly the miraculous birth of the Christ child. I am not ready to move from a space filled with peace and possibilities to a “to do” list. Maybe it’s the “starting fresh” approach that seems a bit off-putting. Maybe we have it all wrong. Instead of making a list of resolutions, perhaps we ought to only ask one simple question:

A year from now what will you wish that you had started today?