Time

The New Year has been rung in. The Ball fell in New York; fireworks were fired until two in the morning in my neighborhood; and many people pondered what they were going to do with the entire year of time given to them. Such dramatic changes can happen in a year. Prosperity can be lost or found. Health can be improved or lost. Peace can give way to war, and strife can find a lost-sought calm. Because of the weight of importance of a new year, people want to make the upcoming year the best one that they have ever lived. They strive to "turn over a new leaf," start a diet, exercise more, and spend more time with their families. However, after the beginning of the year has passed, the pressure to maintain those goals is lost. Those big decisions no longer carry the weight that they did at the beginning of the year. After three months of diligence, the newness of the decision wears off; the pressure of the new year fades; and people find themselves in a post-New Year depression. Around the end of February is my season of New Year's blues. The year seems endless, and I feel completely ineffective at changing myself for the better. This problem, however, I am hoping to avoid in 2014. While everyone else looks at the whole year of 2014 with each of its 365 days looming before them in an ominous mass of formless time, I choose to look at the year differently. The only difference between yesterday and today is the numbers on my computer screen. Nothing earth-shattering happened when the calendar changed from /13 to /14. January 1st is just another day. A day I can handle. All that I must be concerned about is today. Tomorrow has not come yet, and the rest of 2014 is going to be long in coming. I was given today, and this one day (January 1, 2014) is what I'm going to live for. How can one conquer a year? He can do it, but he must do it one day at a time.