ANOTHER YEAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21076, 9 January 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

ANOTHER YEAR.

AN ANNUAL STOCKTAKING.

BY EDNA GRAHAM MACKY.

' Evenly, surely, slowly, the seasors Mend one into the other, the days run their endless course of brightness and shadow, as the cycle of Time revolves npon itself. There is actually no discernible moment when one can say " here / the new year begins " or "here the old year closes." Yet all the peoples of the Earth have a festival or a specific method „of marking off the years as they glide noiselessly into eternity. It is a momentous idea, this designating of the new year, the placing of a ledge to stay our feet upon the slippe y incline of life. We mortals are pilgrims, ever aspiring, ever climbing to the heights of perfection under extreme difficulties, and the idea of a new year serves to ' steady us periodically and allow us a short respite to gather fresh inspiration and courage to go o?s. " Next year I shiill do so and so " or " We hope for better luck next year " are common expressions which give an insight into the human scu! —its-Meed for some sort of starting poiit, its craving for a second chance. Nothing is as powerful in helpfulness as that idea of another chance, a mrw start-, the dawning of a new day, tliu ushering in of a new era. Good resolutions and the New Year are inseparable. o:ne is the raison d'etre of the other. If we had 110 marking off of one year frnin another the tragedy, the weariness, the sordidness of life would surely overpower us. >r As v it is, we are almost overwhelmed the problems that cunat tiu& critical ,sflriod of the too big for ' usf wt *Wo feel"'Somewhat like the small child who had always longed to see an elephant. When at last he gazed upon the huge monster he was so filled with > terror and a sense of his own inadequacy that he cried, "Oh, Daddy! Daddy! Bring me back when I'm a bigger boy!" So it is with us. Each year we hope to- attain sufficient strength to overcome some particular obstacle or to grow in grace to achieve some desired succisss. it we fail,-even after our good resolutions, we can always say " Next year it will come to pass." The new year soliloquy corresponds to the commercial institution of stocktaking. 'No reliable trading firm would dream of going ..on indefinitely, without taking • periodical account of It > would neygf, issue a bSlarice-sheet if there knowledge of what had been sold ■ and what' had been left on hand. No sincere character ever lets the new year pass without sizing up shortcomings md deficiencies and resolving to live more ~ worthily in future. " Turning over a new leaf" is a sacrament of the utmost / importance and gravest significance. It really means starting with a clean, new page in the book of life, the gaining; of absolution from past sins and blunders. ' All children should be encouraged in ' the making of new year resolutions. If these resoltions made in the moment; of aspiration become shattered, well, there is no reason for entire discouragement, 4 there is always the next year and the new year after that! One.much respected citizen of Auckland confessed that as a boy he made a regular practice of writing out a set of new year resolutions and _ tacking them up at the foot of his bed ' where his eye would fall upon them first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. Some of these resolutions were woefully broken and some were carried . out, but the accumulative effect of his efforts in this direction was decidedly beneficial to his character. It would be interesting to see what resolutions some of our acquaintances would make. Their vows would naturally " correspond with their recognised weaknesses, either observed by themselves or pointed out by others, probably entirely dependent upon their powers of self criti- ' c i sm - .ixi A family stocktaking would not l>e a bad thing after all, and who knows what .effect this habit would have upon the affairs of the home, the development of 'the moral sense, particularly among the young, the strcnghtening of character and will power ? We would in time acquire the ability to see ourselves as other.', see us and learn to set about the remedying ' of our defects in a constructive manner. It doesn't do to be too introspective, / but once a year is not too often to take a mental stocktaking of ourselves, and undoubtedly the new year serves us a ;very convenient and appropriate occasion lor so doing!