It’s that time of year – the making and breaking of New Year resolutions. In most years, it is all over the media – what resolutions are you making for the New Year? But this year is different. I have not seen much about those usual resolutions, things like drinking less coffee (or beverage of your choice); losing weight; joining a gym; or quitting smoking.

Indeed, people are not talking about resolutions this year. Little is discussed beyond dealing with COVID and the mess in Washington and Georgia. Perhaps people have too much to worry about – where the next meal is coming from or will the car be re-possessed. The news is filled with economic and personal tragedy. People are struggling with isolation and death of loved ones and lack of income. That is what fills the media this year.

It isn’t the usual retrospectives on the year (oh, there were a couple, but they were depressing). Instead, people are just trying to survive. Mental health issues and crises are on the rise. Poverty is on the rise.

Perhaps this is really the time to make a resolution or two. Not those resolutions we never seem able to keep for more than a few weeks. Instead, we should be making a different kind of resolution, one that is probably not familiar to most of us.

This year’s resolutions (perhaps every year’s) should be something like:

I resolve to check on my next door neighbor at least once a week. Who knows, friendships might grow.

Or, I resolve to be kinder to my children.

Or, I will share my activities and skills with others, building community, even if it is through a video conference.

Resolutions like these, things that support others and help to meet their needs, are easier to keep. It may be that serving others can more easily become a habit, if we make an effort. And, in times like these, making an effort to help others actually comes back and helps us. What we give returns, in time, many-fold, often in unpredictable ways.

It is a time of trouble around the world. Let us make a New Year Resolution to help one another, to do more than survive.

Instead, let us thrive together!

January 4, 2021