Every Year is a Good Year

Every year you are alive on this planet is a good year. Although there may be ups and downs, or even incredibly dark runs of seemingly endless misery, a year ending is another year of life lived, experience gained, and the unique story of your life unfolding.

We constantly watch media and read books about others who have lived through and experienced struggles, conflicts, and adversity. Conflict is the very essential ingredient in the media stories we consume and we often feel recharged by these stories. When conflict enters our own lives we often wish to banish it and move away from it as quickly as possible. Conflict can help us grow, though. We can learn from the hard times in our lives. We can improve ourselves. We can, as Joseph Campbell suggested, find the treasure we seek inside the cave we fear to enter.

So, maybe enter the cave. Maybe do the hard thing. Maybe take the risk. Maybe speak to the stranger. Maybe follow your gut.

No matter your circumstances it is important to remain positive and to strive to improve your situation and life circumstances even if it sometimes seems insurmountable. It’s also important to keep in communication with the people who bring joy and positivity to your life.

Being alive is often a turbulent experience with almost infinite forces impacting our lives as we try and navigate comfortably through what often seems to be entirely and hopelessly beyond our control. But we do possess control. We can steer the ship some, even when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. We also have the ability to remain positive in the face of adversity and to make the best of any situation. We also have the ability to make choices. We can choose what to do with our time, and who to spend it with. We can also choose to help the people we love and care for. We can also help strangers, animals, plants, and the earth itself. Giving rather than always taking can be very rewarding and fulfilling. You can give your time, you can listen, you can help, and you can just be there for those around you. Oftentimes, just being present for someone else is enough. Everyone is going through a struggle, a stress, an issue, or a circumstance. Just because it seems insignificant to you does not make it any less of a problem for the person facing it. Avoid judgement. Avoid hurtful criticism. Be positive. Be humble.

And if someone or something is bringing continued harm, problems, and conflict to your life, consider if you’d be better off avoiding that person, situation, circumstance, or job. Take control. If control seems impossible, use what you have to seek a solution, or at the very least, how to improve your outlook on your difficult circumstance.

As 2019 closes out a decade that’s given rise to many changes in technology, social media, science, politics, and the environment, we can choose to enter the new year and decade feeling hopeful and in control or feeling hopeless and pessimistic.

How will you use technology? How will you use social media? Who will you vote for? What will you eat? Who will you meet? How will you treat the environment? Where will you chose to go? Who will you chose to spend time with? What activities will you chose to busy yourself with? What will you teach your children, friends, or family? What will you learn from teachers, parents, or the people in your life? What will you teach yourself? How will you attempt to grow? And what choices will you make as you steer yourself in a particular direction?

What will you create? What will you write? What will you build? What will you give to others? What will you strive for? What will you dream of? How will you try to better yourself and those around you? In a nutshell, how will you choose to live? The choice is yours. I hope you make the best of it.