It has occurred to me that there are many things that we do on a day to day basis, because we should or because we have to.
We, as a human race, are all interconnected on this Earth. We all require the same basic needs to survive: air, water, and food. Without these basic things life simply cannot be sustained. It is our social responsibility to lead lifestyles that ensure these needs are kept clean and available to one another. In this light, even our everyday food choices need to be socially responsible as well as environmentally responsible to ensure a sustainable food system.
The arrival of a new year always seem to throw back the old pomises that you made to yourself the last year; I was going to accomplish this, I was going to stop doing that , I was going to become an all around better person....
We are thrown into a tail spin about what we want this next year, this new year, this seemingly brand new fresh start. What are you thinking about doing differently this year? What are your new resolves? Are they your own or are they the things that you think they should be due to societial influence? Why does it take the ending of an entire new year to remind us that our lives should be full of the things that we want? That we can finally start living our lives rather than waiting for it to start?
Our lives are our own to live. Life doesn't wait for us to get back on our feet....Life is the good, the bad, the worse, and the best days of our lives put together. It is your own every day resolve that makes up our lives, not the resolve of the ending of a calendar year. But, if it takes social norms and traditions to remind us that we need to make changes to "better" ourselves, our lives, for the year than I guess I'll take it. I just feel sad that the lives we have created for ourselves don't allow us to strive to be the best we can be every day. I know that sounds total chiche and go army of me but if you think about it if you really think about it do you enjoy being run down. Do you enjoy that the only thing you feel like doing every night after you get home is to eat something and go comatose in front of the TV? I know I don't. I know that at 22 years old I don't have the vibrancy that I used to anymore. I, just like everyone else, have let my life fly by without my active participation. Why is this the social norm? This is what I am asking myself this New Year. Why does it feel like the everyday mundane activities of my life have sucked away my personality?
So I guess the point of this is that we should remind ourselves every day that we need to do the things in our life that make us who we are, that make us happy, that make us our own unique self. It is a shame that some days it seems too much like a chore to do the things that we love. Too much of a chore to connect with people. Yes, these are hard economic times. No, not everyone has a job that they love and are passionate about, no, not everybody has a job. But everybody has a life everybody has some small thing that they can live for. So I ask what is the point of life if you cannot enjoy it?
I said while travelling this holiday season, I can feel myself turning into a bitter shrew. Somehow it is easier to give into being mean and angry. Being happy and helpful takes too much energy and risk of being let down. But if this is the way my life is going then I am in serious trouble. I have a lot of years to live and If I am slipping now, if I am letting my heart harden and becoming resistant to happiness a little more each day then I will be a sad life very very soon.
