Article January 28, 2013 Issue

A path to a fresh start

Caryl Emra Farkas

This article originally appeared on csmonitor.com.

During the recent holiday season, advertisements encouraged us to buy and celebrate—and now they tout products and services to help us hit the ground running and get back to business, take care of our diet, our bodies, our future. Christmas is a time for warmth and family, sharing and giving. But now, as the radio announcer said at the end of last year's King’s College Chapel Festival of Carols, “It’s time to step back into the real world.”

The impulse to jump back into life and get on track to realize our fondest goals is a good one. But my first thought on hearing that announcer’s words was that I did not want to be in a great hurry to leave the Christmas sense of light and love expressed by the choir. I want to move forward, but I want to keep the heart of Christmas with me.

It’s fitting that after Christmas we should notice what things in our lives are not in sync with our higher sense of good, and we should want to start fresh and get it right. But the kind of change that we yearn for demands more than a change in diet or merely making resolutions for self-improvement.

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