Main Menu

The Sassy Sandpiper: Resolve to Be Unresolved

Sassy Sandpiper | Year of the Rooster | New Year's

By M.R. Wilson, TB Reporter

Moving into the New Year, maybe it is best not to know exactly where you’re going. 

A few columns back I wrote about making New Year’s Resolutions early to avoid the rush.

You do realize that was all in jest, don’t you?

Truth is, I’m somewhat anti-New Year’s Resolutions, and as a matter of fact, have become rather anti about a lot of stuff. I know, I know. We’re supposed to focus energy on what we’re for.

 See, 2016 saddened and ticked me off, especially November and December. The best part of the holiday season was the introduction to two songs new to me: “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” by Gayla Peevey and Jackson Browne’s “Rebel Jesus.”

Moving on to 2017, the Year of the Rooster. The Chinese New Year officially begins Jan. 28 and forecasts “fresh challenges requiring quick wit and practical solutions…after all the shenanigans of the Year of the Monkey 2016.”

Shenanigans, indeed.

Perhaps, like me, you haven’t been able to “resolve” the new realities thundering our way. Maybe that’s a good thing. You are not settled, nor have you decided on a course of action to deal with or rectify contentious circumstances. No firm decisions or determinations. Yet.

For quite a few years, Buddhist philosophy has made a lot of sense. If it comes to meditation and detachment vs. an existential freak-out, I choose Buddhism. We are reminded of impermanence,  the value of “being not doing,’ the folly of the ego, and the power of observation. In other words, it’s fine to not know exactly where you’re going. You can be okay with uncertainty, even glean wisdom and freedom from the unpinned down.

I can resolve to firm up these vague meanderings soon, and get back to writing about things I know from experience: cats, cooking, gardening, health and well-being—things I’ll strive to keep unspoiled.

Stay tuned.

In the meantime, my best wishes to you, and this from the admirable Rooster:

“I am alert

Ready to take action

The first on the scene

The last to leave

I take chances

But I am precise

I know where things belong

I am orderly and fastidious

Nothing escapes me

I am always prepared

I never give up or in

I AM THE ROOSTER”

Columns | The Sassy Sandpiper | New Years Day | 2017 | Tampa Bay Reporter

#Columns #TheSassySandpiper #NewYearsDay #2017 #TBReporter