Here We Go Again

By G. E. Shuman

Well, just a few days ago our beautiful planet arrived, once more, at the starting place of a new year.  She, (Planets, as all beautiful things, must be “she’s“.) reached that precise point, in empty space, in her orbit of the sun, where we humans have decided that a new year begins.  Please note that what we decide may have very little to do with the true beginning point, but God isn’t telling, so we do the best that we can.  And, since our entire solar system is actually speeding along in a big black infinite bunch of nothingness, we are never really where we have ever been before, anyway.  In any case, as the calendar, the seasons, and our conception of what a year is demand, we have just begun a new one. Happy New Year!
So, regarding the new year, and I probably have asked you this question several times at this point in our previous annual trips around the sun, what are you going to do with it?  Do you have any real plans for it?  Are there any positive changes in your life that you have been putting off making because, well, people make life changes when the earth gets to the point in the circle that it did a few days ago?  If so, guess what?  It’s that time again.  In fact, you’re behind by several degrees by now.
Personally, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.  I regularly set myself up for failure throughout the year, and have no need to do it again on New Year’s eve.  Besides, a few weeks ago my doctor made a resolution for me, in making an appointment for me to see a specialist, to get a certain weight-borderline diabetic problem under control.  How rude of him.  I guess a resolution in which you really have no choice, if you want to stay above ground as long as possible, is a good thing, especially if someone else makes it for you.  It reminds me of an email joke I received recently.  The joke was a drawing of a man who looked too much like me, in his doctor’s office.  The caption was a simple question from the doctor to the patient:  “So, which fits into your busy schedule better, exercising an hour a day, or being dead twenty-four hours a day?”  Hey, I wonder if my doctor was the one who sent that to me.
Truthfully, for our family, the past year brought many good times, and some really tough ones.  We have shared the blessings of being together, and have, I believe, witnessed more than one personal miracle.  We have also shared the burdens of serious illness within our family, and even of recent death and personal tragedy.  All of these things, the very good and the very bad, seem to be unexpected and inalterable elements of our many yearly journeys around the sun.  So, get healthy, love God and your family, and hang on tight during the ride, because…  Here we go again.