Every year is started with hopes of change or something new. I started my day with a little hike up the Two Trees trail. I have not been up this trail for a few months. I though back of my trips up this trail with Stevie the dog. She had a desire to climb the five and six foot chain link fence at will to go play with the neighbor’s dog or to run the neighborhood. I was afraid she was going to get hurt so she found a new home. As will all things, there is a time for change.
In the spring time there are flowers. In the winter in southern California, the hillsides are green ant there may be flowers to see as well. There also may be places that take on the appearance of fall. one can even see the evidence of fall and winter with the winter green.
So as seasons come and seasons go, as years come and years go, we may not be much different because we have chosen not to change or to change very little. We may appear to look or act a little different for a time. But then again we may surely be the same.
The key is to give up those things that are not positive attributes or habits. Give up those things that really do not enhance our personality or make us a better person. Ring out the old and ring in the new as in the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
There are so many things we can “ring out” to make the changes necessary to be a better person. There are many things I can do to be a better person. It may not be as many as the sands of the sea, but I am sure it is as many or more than the leaves on this mountain.
It may seem at times that the sun is setting on us or we have reached an end. We need to press on looking toward the next day.
As the sun sets one day, surely the sun will rise the next. As we change the things we need to or ring out the bad, we will need to ring in the new or that which is good.
So as my trip started up the trail today I made a resolution to have the inspiration to know do what I can and should change in the next your, to know what I should not change and to be smart enough to know what I cannot change. As each season comes, or each day, month or year in our lives. There is always time to change for the better. The key is to actually do something about it.
