This is actually a conversation I overheard at the store this week:

​Cashier: Merry Christmas! 
Customer: Oh yeah, um, happy holidays or Merry Christmas or whatever.. 
Cashier: Oh I just say what I celebrate...

While I was sitting outside thinking about writing a post reflecting on Rosh Hashanah, I heard a song start to drift around the apartment. "You can't always get what you want" eerily rang through my space and answered with "but you get what you need". And just like that, a song that I had been familiar with, changed meanings entirely

​People have long loved the watching the debauchery that comes along with April the first since the time of the Romans.  I used to be one of those individuals who loved pranking people — getting a rise out of someone was a favorite activity and boy, could I do a lot of damage in one April Fool’s Day!  There are many theories as to the hypothetical origins of this day, going as far back in history as the ancient Roman festival of “Hilaria” to the medieval “Feast of Fools”, to the possible effect of calendrical changes in Europe — the idea is clearly not a new one.  

I feel like Good Friday seems like as good a day as any to discuss old beliefs, don’t you?  How many things are there in your life that you do that don’t make sense to you or don’t resonate with you, but you continue to do anyways?  As humans, we habitually continue to do things that once may have made sense to us, but no longer serve a purpose or space within us.  

​As the end of 2015 is knocking at our door, we see a litany of lists, countdowns and general miscellanea reminding us that a new year is upon us and we should be inventorying our lives.  I certainly appreciate taking the time to reminisce about the past year and reflect on all the changes that have taken place, but the idea that we wait to make resolutions but once a year irks me.  Headlines like, “New Year, New You” and articles talking about what to do before your New Year’s resolutions begin, litter news feeds this time of year begging the question of what are you going to change (or not change) about yourself come Friday.

Let me start by saying, I don’t believe in New Years resolutions. I think the concept that the “New Year” will make us change, or somehow make things different is, well, naive.  Really, when we wake up on Friday, it is just another day, like any other (perhaps slightly more hungover—if thats your thing).  Simply because we acknowledge the Julian calendar, what makes this day different than any other?  The idea of making resolutions goes back to ancient times when the Babylonians thought that was the best way to please the Gods and ask for their good favor over the coming year.  When we make resolutions for someone else’s benefit or resolutions that doesn’t personally resonate with us, those are often the ones that only last a few weeks into the new year.