A new year begins. And with that, all our activities start again, exactly where we left them before the holidays.
The habit of drawing up balance sheets about the past year stimulates us to formulate resolutions and desires, to give us goals for the new year. It is a healthy habit: taking a picture of where we have arrived is needed to become aware of what has been done and what is still to be done.
It is a habit that can degenerate into ambition. A certain kind of life experience may lead us to think that changes, if and when they occur, seem small, irrelevant. And then there is the risk of dreaming or dreaming without being able to turn resolutions into reality.
The practice of a discipline, whatever it is, is a useful tool to be able to reflect on the past (this is the meaning of keiko) to lay the foundations of the future but with a total focus on the present, which is the only dimension in which we exist and we live.
So let us wish ourselves a dense, conscious year, where we can cultivate relationships, smiles and the seriousness with which we walk on our path.
Perhaps echoing the words of a medieval sage:
“A clean conscience and virtuous life ought always to be preferred. Many often err and accomplish little or nothing because they try to become learned rather than to live well.
If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world”
May our study, our “doing” always aim at making us grow together.
Happy New Year!
Disclaimer Photo by Danil Aksenov on Unsplash