New Beginning

At some point in the wee hours of December 31st, the space of time known as 2009 will crease to be. This year, as long as it has been; with all that transpired in it was but a speck in the desert of time. Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago and there has been some form of life on earth for a billion years. So even in the context of human existence the space of time measure by January 1st, 2009 to December 31st was nothing. Yes, 2009 brought might have brought sorrow, laughter, joy, love, abundance, starvation, disaster and misery to many. It was filled with all kinds of achievements for some people and will for ever be remembered by others for the crushing disappointments that they suffered. The truth is that while it is helpful and very useful, to partition space into bite sized segments that allow us to manage our small footprint in the sands of time, the demarcation is entirely artificial. Lots of people will make resolutions to be a better this, that or the other. They plan to stop doing this or that; and will make sure that in 2010, they achieve this. I say bravo! But why wait until 2010? The spirit that drives you to want to change for the better, to want to be a better parent, worker and friend why does it need a jump-off date. Why not start today? Nobody has been guaranteed a specific length of time, there is nothing in the wind that will make you anymore resolute on January 1st. than you are today. The important thing is that like a good storekeeper, you have taken stock of your inventory and found yourself short of something, you most make immediate arrangements to replenish or if you never had, to start carrying. The world’s history is populated with unrealized dreams, it is littered with ambitious programs crammed in odd fitting boxes, that ill-fitting box is time. Believe me, it is not for the dawn of the new year that you wait but for the steel in your spine to solidify. The chance to make amends is not infinite, the continuum of your possibilities’ last only so long as that opportunity still presents itself, the certainty of change makes it necessary that we take advantage of the here and now, it will not always be possible to measure your progress by the results of your efforts, if that is the case then all that is left to you is the sincerity of your intentions, how sincere could you have been if you waited just one more day when you could have done it yesterday? So whatever the desired change is, whatever the accomplishment, why not start, now? I am of the belief that the change we desire is much stronger than the change that happens to us, one happens without our consent and the other is the direct result of our strength and inner fortitude, our refusal to succumb to the dictates of circumstances. You are a winner, you have to go to bed believing that and wake up saying it, you have to learn to let your inner beast out, the incredible hulk that lurks within you does not believe in January 1st, it wanted to be unleashed like yesterday. Funny; you have probably heard this so many times it has lost meaning but a journey of a thousand miles truly does start with a single small step. One of the most beautiful pieces of art in existence is Michelangelo’s “The David” carved out of a single block of marble it is an incredible mark of human achievement. Let me; let someone else tell the story, “on august 16, 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task. He began carving the statue early in the morning on Monday, September 13, a month after he was awarded the contract. He would work on the massive biblical hero for 3 years.” September 13th, just another day, and he kept at it for three years, with only primitive chisels and hammers to work with. You already have your own block of marble, why not get to work? Your masterpiece is waiting inside, all you have to do is raise that hammer, aren’t you excited? Why would you want to put this off for another day?

Edu Nnadi