What do you promise yourself this new year?

I’ve not been a loyal resolver.
There have been years I made some hollow vow about eating less or exercising more. I’ve promised now and then to organize, unclutter and to finally use myriad possessions long tucked away.
One new year sparks an urge to nest. Another carries with it a determination to streamline.
One late December brought a fleeting thought of public service. Jan. 1 often arrives accompanied by a hunger for a greater understanding of spirituality.
But to say I jog headlong down the path of New Year’s Resolutions each time the calendar spins its annual 365? No.
Yet as 2011 struggles to stand on its wobbly legs like a day-old colt, an eyebrow arches.
I can lose that weight. I can change that habit. I can organize. I can reach out to others. I can open my heart to a world larger than my own.
I can find zen and straighten out my income tax receipts. I can slow down and give that still small voice a chance to be heard above a racing heart. I can read the classics and be more diligent in my battle with that soap scum on the shower stall tile.
I can do the things my soul whispers. A day at a time I can be smarter, healthier, more caring, more spiritual – more.
And if it lasts a month, a week, a day – then for a month, a week, a day I offered the world, and myself, a better me.
Happy New Year.

J.B. Bittner
Stillwater NewsPress editor