Grand Trunk

I took a couple of photos on Christmas Day and I’ve decided they’ll serve as a nice theme for the New Year.

While on walking along Shore Road to my sister’s home, I spotted two old steamer trunks in front of an apartment building waiting to be carted off by the Sanitation Department.

Somebody was getting rid of their baggage.

Perhaps that’s twisting the metaphor a bit too far, but I don’t care. I just want to dump the junk I’ve been hauling around in my head for far too many years.

I’m not making any grand pronouncements for 2019 because we all know that most New Year’s resolutions hit the canvas in less time than it takes to make them.

I just want to check in with the progress—or lack of it—I’ve had in reaching my goals. There are writing projects, career objectives, and personal undertakings that I’ve let slip away from me.

I can do this any time of the year, of course, but New Year’s Day seems like a good jumping off point.

Now 2018 was a bit of challenge, as I was recuperating from my surgery, but I don’t want to harp on that for the rest of my life. It’s over and done, now let’s move on.

I got some good advice from Fred the Shrink a while back that I’m only now starting to appreciate. I was talking about trying hard to succeed and he flipped the script on me.

“You’ve tried hard,” he said, “now try easy.”

At first, I thought he was talking about slacking off or giving up entirely. But I see now he was referring to my attitude: I can chase my dreams with the same amount of energy as always, but I don’t have to get all worked up and psychotic in the process.

Baggage Claim

The frenzied approach hasn’t paid off for me anyway, so this might be a good time to give it the heave-ho.

I saw this principle at work last week during my boxing class. We had a low turnout due to the holiday, which meant the few, the proud, and the crazy got more attention from our instructor Abby.

In fact, instead of doing one circuit around the room, we got to do two of them—including a pair of one-on-one sessions with Abby and his mitts of doom.

In the first go-round I felt tight and awkward. I was putting out tons of effort, but I was disappointed with the results. I dreaded the next round because by the time I did a second run of the circuit I would be even more exhausted than I already was.

If only I stayed home in bed…

However, I was more at ease in the next round.

Abby complimented my technique and I relaxed, forgetting about fatigue and how I looked in front of my classmates—always a big issue with me--and just let my hands go. And it felt good.

I tried hard and then I tried easy.

I had a similar experience during my morning meditation. Lately, I haven’t been achieving the deep state of relaxation that I normally do and I wasn’t sure why.

And naturally the more I thought about this situation, the less relaxed I became.

But things were different this morning. I stopped thinking so damn much and decided that I would accept whatever happened—good, bad, or whatever. This is meditation, not The Hunger Games.

And by doing that, I was able to have the best meditation I’ve had in weeks. I was breathing deeply and relaxing every muscle in my body. It was epic.

So, I’m not going to swear on stack of bibles or cross my heart and hope to die that I’ll keep all my resolutions for 2019. I’m just going to pack up all my cares and woe and put them out on the corner for the garbageman to take.

I’ve tried hard and now I’m going to try easy.

Happy New Year.