As we come to the first day of February, I consider the New Year’s resolutions I made on January 1st.
My bathroom scale does not lie. It tells me to be sure to hit the treadmill every day and to keep the refrigerator door with the ice cream closed in the evening. These are resolutions for the welfare of my body.
Fr. Bill O’Malley, S.J., author, teacher and actor, played Fr. Joe O’Brien in the 1973 movie, The Exorcist. He is retired now at Fordham University and shares —
10 RESOLUTIONS TO HELP THE SOULS OF WE WHO ARE AGING:
1. Help me not merely to survive but to thrive with dignity, verve and joy.
2. Make me contagious with all the aliveness I have left in me.
3. Encourage me to be more readily forgiving, not just of others, but myself.
4. Firm up my patience with imperfection now that it’s more difficult to avoid.
5. Make me both prudent and patient in yielding lest I become an amiable pushover.
6. Remind me that my caregivers have bad days, too.
7. Allow me a reasoned opinion without becoming opinion-bound.
8. Sensitize me to the signals that say it’s OK to ask, “How’s it goin’?”
9. Keep me aware that, if I forget all this, I waste a lot of learning.
10. Remind me you have a reason to create things that eventually wear out. A God Flash
As I begin a new month I now have two things to do each morning:
1. Check my bathroom scale.
2. Check the 10 Resolutions I have posted on my refrigerator door.
