{"id":224,"date":"2008-09-01T13:32:35","date_gmt":"2008-09-01T13:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2008\/09\/assessing-the-real-new-year.html"},"modified":"2008-09-01T13:32:35","modified_gmt":"2008-09-01T13:32:35","slug":"assessing-the-real-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/09\/assessing-the-real-new-year.html","title":{"rendered":"Assessing the Real New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our calendar is obsolete and archaic. Everyone knows everything starts anew in the Fall.
\nToday, Labor Day, is the real New Year’s day. At least that’s how it always feels to me.
\n\"\"
\n<\/a>The Dalai Lama says we should assess our practice and the state of our life once every 10 years. I think it’s not being too type A to lower that to one year. This feels like the right day to do it.
\nIn the last year:
\n-I did not take a single plastic bag<\/a> from a store, haven’t used a reusable coffee cup in six months. Started letting worms eat my garbage<\/a>. I haven’t done nearly enough to understand local food and how to eat more of it, and that’s one of my main responsible consumption resolutions for ’08-’09.
\n-The I.D. Project<\/a> became a 501c3 org and started a new group in Portland<\/a>.
\n-We brought our Integral Activism and Arts programs that much deeper into development.
\n-I probably meditated less this year than any year in the last eight, but I also did more things that scare me than ever before. Is it okay to meditate less if your post-meditation practice goes deeper? I hope so.
\n-I learned that being a published author<\/a> isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and that writer’s block can strike at any point along the path. What did the Buddha say about obstacles never disappearing?
\n-I became much more hopeful about friendship and community, but much more cynical about relationships.
\n-I learned just a tiny bit more about how to surrender to what life is<\/em>, and let go a little bit more of what it was supposed to be. Then I forgot everything I learned and had to start over, a bit more open to not having a clue.
\nHappy New Year’s, y’all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our calendar is obsolete and archaic. Everyone knows everything starts anew in the Fall. Today, Labor Day, is the real New Year’s day. At least that’s how it always feels to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nAssessing the Real New Year - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/09\/assessing-the-real-new-year.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assessing the Real New Year - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our calendar is obsolete and archaic. Everyone knows everything starts anew in the Fall. 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