feliz ano novo e que seja tudo que tu esperes...

A new year calls for resolutions.

They are not going up here.

BUT what I will put up here is some thoughts I have been having with the beginning of this new year.

I.

I love and cherish this second time 'round photo.

II.

Often when I find myself in the situation of celebrating the passage of time, may it be birthdays or Christmas--New Years is no different--I find myself reflecting upon the old cliche of how fast the time flies. This time last year I was on another side of the world with completely different focuses. I think that time passing is such a weird concept and think I would rather have a world in which time did not exist. Maybe people would be healthier. Maybe people would spend time with each other. Maybe there would be less heartbreak. Maybe. Oh what an uneven and lost little word.

III.

In the last year I have had a lot of changes in my life. A LOT. Most for the better, some for the worse.

The thing that always strikes me as so wonderfully convenient and not so fully taken advantage of is the opportunity that we each have to change. Reinvention. Adaptation. Tweeking. Forgiving.

Change is the moving force. Change in ourselves is the most vital. When we are able to change ourselves it becomes easier to become the change in the world. Many people have that backwards. They think that being the change in the world will enact some change in themselves. Or maybe just be the cover up for insecurities they have. Whatever the case, it remains that each moment is a moment to become. To evolve. To reflect. Failure to do so will inflict very plain and simple and perhaps painful realities that life was too short and was not taken advantage of.

IV.

Due to a recent conversation I will turn my attention to a subject that I think deserves attention. It should be the underlining subject of all learning and all loving. That is humility. I most surely do not paint myself as a particularly humble person. (I have been accused of being quite the opposite). I find it hard sometimes to see myself in people and therefore treat them as they should be treated. Humility would save the world if people would let it. If we could and would all be humble idealists, I think I would be a different person.

I cannot be anyone without you. That to me is an eternal truth.

V.

Discovery should be made with care and with purpose.

"Education is not the filling of a pail. It is the lighting of a fire." -Yeats