While January marks the start of the calendar year, I’ve always thought it an odd time to make resolutions, being catapulted from the high-spirited holidays into the deepest cold, dark, snowy days of winter. However, such is the tradition and we can do worse than emulate the buds as they stir beneath the soil, ready to emerge into the new life of Spring.
My resolution this year is to fix the things in my life that don’t work, from the big, meaningful issues like health and employment, all the way down to any items that are not functioning.
I began with the backpack I use every day, which developed a zipper with teeth that would no longer stay closed. I thought getting the zipper repaired, if not replaced, would be relatively straightforward in such a big city, and was thus amazed to find myself over several weeks immersed in what I termed a ‘bag-a-saga’, as I trawled through any clothing alteration shops, dry cleaners and shoe repair places I could find, all of them either telling me they couldn’t fix or replace the zipper, or that it would cost an extortionate amount and wasn’t worth doing.
I truly love this bag – it suits all of my needs, and a similar one proved difficult to find. I also try not to give in to our readily disposable culture if I can repair what I already have. Undeterred by the dozen or so places I’d already tried, I had another two hopefuls lined up, and one day after work, duly trekked out to them in the blustering snow. The first place fixed one side of the zipper but couldn’t do the other, so I schlepped to yet another shoe repair shop, by this point vowing to pay whatever was asked for, and lo and behold, the man said all I needed was a new slider, come back in half an hour, $20, job done. Amen.
What I learned from this bag-a-saga, trifling as it was, is that anything is possible if you keep at it, regardless of the size or scope of the issue. However, once you put the intention of what you need resolved out into the universe, it is equally important to consistently work at making it a reality, through regular and focused actions. In our current society, we often expect quick results and get frustrated by delays or a seeming lack of progress. But if you keep steadily at something, being open and willing, while unwavering in your determination, results can and will happen over time.
Undoubtedly, it can be very difficult wading through uncertainty, anxiety, procrastination and despondency, and sometimes the biggest battle is fighting against the seeming hopelessness of ever achieving a positive outcome.
It’s also very easy to instruct someone to keep at something and so much harder to do it yourself. There is not a lot of glamour in grunt work, but the true magic happens when the universe meets you halfway, providing, through often unexpected means, a pathway of sunlight through a storm, leading you to reach a better place on the other side.