The beginning is a
time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct, said the Princess
Irulan, in her biography of Muad’Dib; a small miscalculation at the outset, any
deviation from the plan no matter how subtle, will cause you to miss your mark
by a wide margin.
Today is a day for
beginnings, for taking a single step that establishes the trajectory of
countless footsteps we will tread and the unnumbered hours that make up our
years.
Do not allow your consideration
of this cautionary note to deter you from your end or, get you to a place that you
did not intended to be in. Therefore, great care must be taken at the beginnings
of things…be mindful of your aim.
Today is a day
of resolutions.
Doing is
being, as Ray Bradbury said:
To
have done is not enough
One
cannot lay about, and lie about the things we might just do someday
but do, to win the
game
Great things are
accomplished (and by great I mean great in any sphere: socially, professionally,
personally, spiritually, privately), great things are arrived at, built,
discovered by slinging together a series of small-regular and consistent actions,
so minute that they are less noticeable than the growth of your fingernails.
It is by the steady
application of effort that we learn to do, and thereby that we can do just
about anything…we can walk through fire, we can breathe underwater, have danced
on the face of the moon.
If you resolve to do
something this year; be resolute in your determination, take proper account of
your situation, see your target and steady your aim…keep this in mind: getting
there is less important than the going.
If life is a river, it
is a confluence of contradictions; the journey you are taking may require that
you throw yourself into the river’s current if you wish to arrive at your
destination; do so knowing that the process is more important than the goal.
Be mindful.
The archer is not only
concerned with the object of her aim but with the drawing of her bow, with the
tension in the string, with her distance to the target and the flow of the
wind.
Prepare yourself to understand
these variables, attenuate yourself to them…for they are always changing.
Make 2026 a year in
which hope for the future of America and her promise does not seem absurd, extend
that hope to the entire world…365 days from now, hope may be all there is.
Compassion and accountability,
charity and honesty, integrity and humility…justice: call for these; demonstrate
your desire for them through the life you lead and listen for those in need of
them…they are weeping in the wilderness of fear and uncertainty…be a shield for
them.
If you see something,
say something
Today is the first
day, it is a day for unity and common purpose.
Today is a day of
beginnings, a day for resolutions, a day for reflection and for joy.
Today we stand on the
fulcrum of a lever, we are poised (as always) between past and future, looking
forward toward our hopes as we consider the sum of our failures: war and
famine, disease and ruin, all the result of our collective strivings…let each
thing fall into its proper place like stepping stones you lay before you while
you move toward your desired end.
