As 2016 approached I began to think about what I might write for the new year, which then prompted me to think about resolutions. I didn’t want to write something trite – the cheerleading blight that I can’t stand to read. But, I started thinking about the word “resolution” and in my musings realized its link to the the word “resolve.” Then the word resolve parted for me – breaking into Re & Solve and I got it!

The resolutions we so easily leave behind us as the year moves on are related to those things we need to figure out, embrace, learn or change. We often re-visit those things in our lives, sometimes year after year, until we get it: until we’ve solved the puzzle.

I felt intrigued to think about what it is that I am currently trying to re-solve. Here’s my short list:

• How to laugh more with my two sons
• How to deal with aging and not be fearful of death
• How to stay away from the lure of my phone and computer screen
• How to best use the class and educational privilege I hold in service of equity and justice

Some of these I’ve been re-solving for several years (technology’s pull; responding meaningfully to the vast inequity in the world) and others are more recent (death; laughter). I’m in the process of thinking about what the pieces are to the puzzle for each of these and how they might be linked – if at all.

What are you re-solving this year? What’s the puzzle in front of you? How do the pieces fit together?

Take a minute to write down one thing you want to re-solve this year and then think about it like a jigsaw puzzle – look at the components to what’s calling for your attention and then play around with the pieces over and over until you get a “snap”!

It might take years or an epiphany might come in the pre-dawn hours or in the shower. Whenever it arrives – welcome it with a smile and an open heart – for those are the moments that propel us to the next step in the journey we’re each dreaming.

May your 2016 be enlightening,

Maria