January is…

We all seem to have this collective agreement that when December 31st meets January 1st, we will increase the yearly number by one and time will march on while we keep writing the wrong date on all our correspondence for a few weeks.

You know, there are much better times in nature’s cycle to mark the beginning of a new year.

Maybe like at the Winter Solstice, when a new solar year begins?

Or the Spring Equinox, when life fully awakens from dormancy and the world begins to green and grow?

But in the middle of Winter?  When the earth still sleeps, and the weather will be just what it is for a while? That doesn’t seem to make much sense to me.

But it is what it is!

January is named for the ancient Roman God Janus, who Wikipedia tells us “is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.”

I guess if we are going to arbitrarily decide a time to mark the beginning of a new year, then we’d better name it for a god who rules gates and doorways, beginnings and endings. At least looking behind and ahead at the same time makes sense in transition.

We are so entrained that January 1st means a fresh start that we do, indeed, start fresh. Or try to. We make plans and resolutions. Set intentions and parameters.

And yet we know that any time can be a “new” time, a “new” opportunity. Let’s decide to make this one new and to use each of the opportunities it brings us!