Happy Birthday, Earth!

Welcome to 2011 and my new blog!
You might know me from my creative writing blog, Intrinsic Explorations, but I'm betting you don't since that blog only has 3 followers.
(http://intrinsicexplorations.blogspot.com/)

What you will find here are my thoughts (surprise!).  Nothing purposefully complicated or simplified, but just ideas how they are.  Probably also some quotes and music too.  Maybe a movie review or maybe I'll dance for you if the demand is high; who knows?
For me, writing is a beautiful way to explore ideas.  For you, hopefully this will engage your brain.
Read to your pleasure.
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So...
Why do we celebrate the New Year?  The beginning of the New Year is pretty much arbitrary.  I highly doubt God created the Earth on January 1.  I'd say there's probably a 4/1461 chance that this was so, in fact.  ((1/365.25)*4)

I've concluded that the celebration of a New Year is simply to satisfy the human need for a new beginning, and ultimately, hope.
Perhaps it is because we've made mistakes we want to be in our past and putting them in a different year helps bury them.  Perhaps we are anxious for something to happen that we attribute it to a coming year.  For some it's a time to create new resolutions for a later date, or in other words, procrastinate.

What I'm getting at is that while celebration and hope is great.  I truly think that one of the most important aspects of being human is to take responsibility.  Take responsibility for kicking your bad habit now.  for forgiving others now.  for not wasting time waiting for the future, but savoring the now.

It's often said to live in the now.  But what does this mean?  I think most people don't really know.  To many, it means living on impulse and spontaneity.  To live worry free.  To live without thinking about consequences.

To me, living in the now means something quite different.
Living in the now means accepting your past and accepting your future.  It does not necessarily mean "living on the edge" or "living like you'll die tomorrow."  Sure, you might die tomorrow, but there is a much greater probability that you won't.  So this, I believe, is too simple---it takes away the essence of the "now" and confuses it for disregarding the past and future.
On the contrary, we need to acknowledge and accept the past and future.

Living in the now?

It means to...
...accept your past.  The painful memories; forgiving others and, more importantly, forgiving yourself.  Understanding that you cannot change what has happened.  Address your mistakes as mistakes--take responsibility, but then mend your past by learning something and moving on.  Then it's fine to leave memories, persons, and places behind as necessary.  The beautiful memories; remembering the moments that made your heart skip a beat; holding tight those who are good and were part of those memories. 

It means to...
...accept the uncertainty of your future.  Goals and plans are needed; perhaps we can't control the future, but we can definitely influence it.  You can't ever know exactly how things will work out and you need to understand that things constantly change; when they do change, go with it after some internal and external assessment---that is, trust your feelings, but also use your brain.  Merge your intuition with your knowledge by using common sense and some introspective analysis.

As a blend of the past and future, it's important to work toward personal growth.  This looks different for everyone and something that's small for one person could be large for another and vice versa.  The past: It's important to find your own flaws, not in a self-destructive manner, but if there's something you can fix that will lead you to truly loving yourself more.. it's worth doing.  The future: Once you find those flaws, figure out reasonable and realistic ways to improve them.  The now: Take action!  Keep your eyes on your goal.  Continue trying, always.

For those who do so, pray along the way.  For resolution with your past, realism with your future, and optimism with your now.

So... my New Year's resolution?
I have a few, and one of them is to live in the now.