Time flows on, in ever widening circles, unfazed by our arbitrary markers of “Tuesday”, “10:00”  or “2017”. The struggles, joys, hopes, and fears we carry will be there for us tomorrow, in a new year, if we choose them again.

Maybe we need an excuse for a clean slate, a fresh start. Resolutions could be as easily made on March 18 or June 28.

What do I resolve for the year that is to come?

I resolve to resolve all year long. To claim ideas, and hopes, and corrections, when they occur to me, not waiting for some arbitrary moment in a future that has not yet arrived.

To resolve is to re-solve, to solve again. Hidden in the very word is encouragement–it means I’ve done it already, once before, and have the means to do it again. Hopefully not in the same way.

I am a new person this time around, knit together with experiences, awareness, and resources I didn’t possess the last time I solved. And all of those previous versions of me, from the moment of my birth, are accessible to me if I will but listen for their voices and watch for their personalities to contribute to the solving.

The Latin root for “solve” is to loosen, as if solving is untying a knot. Here’s to untying the knots as they arise in the new year.