I’ll take any excuse to make them. New Year’s, first day of school, birthday.

Sometimes they are formal, list-like affairs. Other times just fleeting inclinations: “Don’t worry so much.” “Take life as it comes.”

Today’s is like that. “Be grateful for what you have.”

If a “foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” (Emerson), then what are resolutions? A refuge for the list-maker? A canard for the overly optimistic?

Or a way to stay fluid as the years conspire to harden us?

I’ll go with that last one!