New Year is a new page, a clean slate, a new beginning. It is a gift wrapped with 365 unused days given to us. It is a time to make resolutions.
So, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions to become better human beings for a better tomorrow. But alas! They give up pretty quickly, because a resolution collides with their old year’s habits and thus fail to reach their attainable goal. Still, men should continue to make resolutions even if they become men of broken-resolutions, ‘seventy times seventy’; God looks not at their failures but at the number of sincere, genuine attempts they make every time they fall.
Some don’t believe in making New Year resolutions, perhaps, because they do not have a desire to get out from their wrong habits and sadly, do not mind if they change from bad to worse. According to me, men without resolutions is like a ship without a rudder; a wood drifting in the river of life and finally ending in the eternal river of hell.
If we analyse the New Year resolutions, we find, it usually focuses on making new habits. Drowsy individuals, come to a decision to visit the gym regularly, to improve their physical body. But their weak thoughts like daydreaming do not materialize. Food-lovers make up their mind to give up junk food from their eating habits and lead a healthy lifestyle. But they cannot give up their old habits. So, they become victims of their greed. Drunkards make resolutions to leave tavern aunties’ bottle and drink only what fishes drink, namely, water by keeping water at arm’s; length and ‘feni’ at leg’s length; but the fiery ‘feni’ in the bottle is as tempting as the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. That is why they are not able to live up to their resolution because of their tempestuous thoughts of agitated thirst for liquor.
The long arm of law chose not to be silent spectators to traffic indiscipline when offered a little paper money by traffic violators. They vow to stop the easy flow of drugs, illegal massage parlours and night clubs as all this erodes the moral fabric of our youth. Their resolution also includes a guarantee to maintain safety for women in Goa. But alas! A few of them fail in their decision, perhaps because of their ‘chalta hai’ attitude. Politicians make a resolution to serve the public as servants, and work for the development of Goa. But, perhaps, they find it difficult because there are lots of protests, here and there, from the public. City and village dwellers who bravely throw garbage anywhere and everywhere, settle in their mind not to ornament Goan roads and fields with garbage, just to make life a little pleasant for the entire community. But they can’t break the attachment of their old habit of flinging thrash, perhaps, because they feel great inner joy in their action. Four wheelers and two wheelers, seeing numerous accidents on the road, come to the conclusion with the strength of their mind to follow traffic rules as it is meant to avoid collision. But they cannot stick to rules as their mind gets stressed with road full of pot holes and therefore, have to go the wrong way down the one way street.
Resolutions, to mind and body last, as long as mind and body is alive. Our soul is eternal. So, resolutions we make should be lasting beyond our physical life with daily meditation that connects us which God.
