Romer Family Ramblings

I have always loved the New Year. There's just something about the symbolic yearly "purging" I have come to enjoy. To leave behind my bad habits, my complaints, my trials and grief, and start anew. I don't want those things creeping into 2009. I will leave them buried deep in 2008.

Many a person has wisely informed me that EVERY DAY can be a "new year" symbolically speaking, if not the actual beginning of a new calendar year. Everyday I can start fresh. And yes indeed, it can and I can. Perhaps it is my stubborn self that waits every year for the date to read 01/01. Maybe it is my habitual procrastination that continually puts off my self-renewal of sorts, until "Monday", which turns into "The first of the month", which EVENTUALLY leads to "the first of the New Year." And that is the end all. The day I mentally draw a big black line to separate the new from the old, the past from the present and the good from the bad, like a little boy rolling a line of duct tape down the middle of the room, seperating HIS side from his brothers.

The New Year has come, and I desire to resolute myself. I have never been big on "checklist" resolutions. Most likely because they never seem to "stick." You know....lose weight, travel, spend less, save more, exercise, be healthy....

There are too many, they are too lofty, and I simply can't measure up. No, resolutions have never really been for me.

Instead, I think of something meaningful to me, and something that inspires me. This usually comes in the form of a poem, a song, a saying, a scripture, a person.....it can be anything really. And I try a little every day to live my life that way.

I have been thinking so much about my childhood. About how lucky I was to be surrounded by family, by my cousins, who were my best friends. I remember once the Barnard cousins were at my house and we made a "talent video tape" to send to my Uncle Mark in Oregon. We still have the tape....sorry Uncle Mark.....but we played the piano, did Karate kicks, danced to music, and my cousin BJ recited a poem called "Let Me Be a Little Kinder," which is actually lyrics to a song. I'm not sure WHY I remembered this poem, after all these years. Perhaps the Lord knows these are the things I need to work on.

Let Me Be a Little Kinder

Glen Campbell

Let me be a little kinder

Let me be a little blinder

To the faults of those about me

Let me praise a little more

Let me be when I am weary

Just a little bit more cheery

Think a little more of others

And a little less of me

Let me be a little braver

When temptation bids me waver

Let me strive a little harder

To be all that I should be

Let me be a little meeker

With the brother that is weaker

Let me think more of my neighbor

And a little less of me

Yes, I love the New Year. In with the good, and out with the bad. A chance for me to start over. An opportuntity for me to try and be a little braver, a little meeker, a little kinder. To think a little more of others and a little less of me. And that's just what I intend to do.