You are not the same person you were 365 days ago.

There is cell, blood and tissue regeneration. People have come and gone. Countless miles traveled. Physical adventure and immeasurable displays of emotion. Old beliefs discarded and new ones nurtured.

Change.

Some of it conscious, most of it, not so much.

Every one of those “365 day – 24 hour” time-capsules carried equal importance. Day 148? Just as significant as day 241 or 300. So that third Thursday last Spring (the one you can’t remember) was just as beneficial as say New Year’s Day or the anniversary of your sobriety or cancer-in-remission checkup. And that arbitrary Monday last month holds as much significance in your growth as the day you walked across the stage and accepted your diploma or held your newborn for the first time. Every day contributed to where you are in this moment. And if you LIKE where you are at this time, then keep feeding your days with the same fuel of thoughts, words and deeds. If you DON’T like where you are – start by changing this one day. This one day. Change what you dwell on. Instead of linking one worst case thought to another. Start to create a new dwelling place in mind. Start dwelling on simple circumstances where things went right, people laughed and activities flowed. Start dwelling on which body parts ARE working and praise them for it. Start dwelling on what bills you CAN pay and be grateful for what that service provided you.

Dwell on possibility.

Dwell on what has worked, who you DO like, who HAS shown up and what good is happening in the world. Do that for a day. Do it for another. Then another. And before you may realize, a collection of those deliberate dwelling days has become a month. A month has become a season and a season a year. Ralph Waldo Emerson encouraged, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely…”

I agree with Emerson’s suggestion to not carry our blunders with us from one day to the next for what good does it do to wallow in defeatist energy? AND, what I additionally believe, is that in order to let the next day be all that it can be, then one must BLESS the day AND the blunder. For only by blessing the absurdity can we ever really begin to let it go. Dwell on the blunder itself or dwell on the blessing of the blunder…

Each a choice – each creating a tone for which our future days are colored. Can you look back over this past year and authentically bless each day? The blunders as well as the victories? Can you consider that both were necessary for you to refine your choosing, your preference, your desire? If not, then start with blessing today… then tomorrow, then tomorrow……

A year from now, you’ll look back and see that you aren’t the same person you were when you first read this.