2014: A Resolution to Resolve
res•o•lu•tion (ˌrɛz əˈlu ʃən)
A formal expression of opinion or intention made.
re•solve (rɪˈzɒlv)
To cause to progress from a dissonance to a consonance.
Well, here we are again – New Year’s Day and folks are starting the day and the year by making proclamations both public and private, of what is GOING TO BE DIFFERENT this year.
A quick Google search of ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ gives 352,000,000 hits! (Census.gov estimates total US Population at 316,000,000 – just for perspective’s sake).
Here’s a quick slice out of the Top 10 per USA.gov (Uncle Sam does it too?):
All of those are good things to work on and anyone on the Path can relate to how these would be a source of Dukkha or ‘suffering’ (personally, I think ‘unsatisfactoriness’ is a more apt term).
Smoking was on my list for a long time. I did quit, but it was in October of 2012 not January 2012 – 10 months of ‘rebooting’ my resolution – which pleased my inner critic to no end.
This year I wanted to be more mindful and not setup for a setback.
I got to thinking about the words – ‘resolution’ and ‘resolve’ and what they mean at this time of year versus what they can mean anytime you want them to…
Remembering a Jazz Improv class I took years ago and how the concept of musical dissonance drove my Beatle conditioned ears crazy – where was the hook, the harmony…the resolution?
Every class, I would get stuck – listening for the ‘closing’ of the musical loop that my brain wanted to hear – that note that ‘answers’ the melodic question – where is that note? Would somebody please play that note? ARRGH!!
I hated Jazz Improv. I wanted Lennon and McCartney. I wanted harmony. I wanted it to resolve.
Ironically, I lived a life defined by dissonance…for decades. Constantly on the hunt for that thing – that person – that chemical – that whatever felt like it could close the loop and answer the question.
After 20 plus years of hunting and hurting, I learned the hard way that no ‘magical thing’ exists out there that will ‘fix’ me. It’s an inside job. The further along the path I go, the more I feel a part of a larger whole – the more mindful I can get, the easier it is to accept reality for what it is – dealing with the facts.
For the record, acceptance of the facts does NOT mean approval of them. It is acknowledgment – and with that comes the ability to move on – to get unstuck and stop fighting what already is – if I can do that even for the briefest of moments…there is resolution. Things resolve ‘back to the one’ and there is harmony.
I like the sound of that.
Happy New Year!
