Serene Karplus, Nederland. After the winter solstice, the sun works hard for us, adding a few minutes a day and pushing itself slowly higher in the sky to reach the much-anticipated equinox and eventual summer solstice. It works slowly, in small increments, to reach its goal of greater strength and energy to serve all living creatures. As must we.

We know that after its darkest day, as the sun begins to pull out of its end-of-year funk, winter sets in hard, with the coldest days struggling to get us to spring’s rewards. But we recognize that the sun is, indeed, working in tiny steps each day to get us to that destination.

The same may be said of new year intentions set by each of us this next week. We have big goals to take better care of ourselves. Fat and tired from the holidays, we intend to eat right and exercise more, be kinder and more loving. But after a week or two working toward this, some of us give up and revert to our old habits. It doesn’t have to be that way.

We could take a lesson from nature. Even when we feel like we’ve taken on a bigger project than we can manage, that the goal is bigger than our small efforts can reach, we need to give ourselves credit for the tiny increments of success we achieve.

Last summer, I began pushing my dad’s wheelchair along creek paths for multiple blocks. I could feel muscles in my arms that had not been used in a long time. It was better exercise for me than the slow walks holding hands with an unstable 92-year-old before the stroke struck one leg out from under him. Five months later, his occasional urgent need to get home from the furthest point on our neighborhood loop encourages me to run with his chair. My lungs, legs and arms have slowly built up to be strong enough to handle this.

A friend in his sixties has hired a personal trainer to focus his efforts to stay fit while still working. Other friends in their seventies and eighties have taken up new fitness routines or pickleball, while others read good books to continually expand their understanding of a complex world.

Another friend in her mid-sixties meets with counselors to expand her perspectives as she continually improves her social and relationship skills.

She has tackled dietary improvements, (beating an addiction to sugar is as tough as an alcoholic staying sober), and committed to daily exercise. She was saddened to hear an elder friend declare that he was distraught in his marriage because, he insisted, people don’t change.

Of course, people change, she thought. And, indeed, we all can. Just as a 100-year-old can still heal a cut finger, we are all capable of growth and regeneration at all times and all ages, as long as we are relatively healthy (specific injuries and illnesses can cause exceptions). This applies equally to body, mind and spirit.

Like the sun’s journey toward the equinox and continued progress beyond, we can reach our goals. Maybe not overnight. Incrementally. Tiny steps add up. We acknowledge stormy days when clouds darken the improvements we thought we had made, yet recognize that progress is still there, just as the sun still shines a few minutes longer each day above the temporary cover that prevents us from witnessing it.

As we enter a new year, we can set intentions and slowly inch toward them, overcome distractions and setbacks, and stay on track with progress, however small and slow it may feel. We will, in the months ahead, after the tough work at the beginning, be better for it, whether we see it immediately or not.

Let’s take a moment to ponder - and write down - as the new year approaches, our good intentions for the future. If we stick them on the fridge or the mirror and remind ourselves daily of what we want to be and become, we will continue to grow into that vision.

Happy New Year, everyone!

(Originally published in the December 27, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)