Resolute

A musician must make music, a painter must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.

--Abraham Maslow

This year I am thinking hard about new year's resolutions, not in order to punish myself or as a set up for failure, oh no. I'm thinking that skillfully conceived resolutions can act as a framework on which to hang the events of the coming year. Good resolutions are beacons that can help remind me of my heart's wishes, keep me on track.

Some years I'm content with the idea that who I am right now at this very second is just fine. This year, I'm feeling a little bit more ambitious. Some of that, no doubt, has to do with the fact that not only is 2010 a new year, but also the beginning of a new decade, one in which I will turn sixty. Yikes. Life is short and time's a-wastin'.

So I'm sketching my ideas, writing down my hopes and wishes for the coming decade. Tomorrow or Thursday I will sculpt all these drawings and words into something coherent. Then on New Year's Day I'm going to go down to the Supreme Court where I will say them aloud, with conviction. (I always like to make declarations in front of the Supreme Court. It is one of my public altars. There's something about all the white marble, maybe, along with the double columns and serious looking dudes in the frieze above the front door that always inspires me to say what I mean and mean what I say.)

It's a cold, windy, sunny day in DC; a great day to hunker down and refine my resolutions. I am very determined! Oh yeah!

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

-- Mary Oliver