Janus and Living in the Now
Janus is the two-headed, animistic god of doorways, bridges and passageways, who symbolized endings and new beginnings. From the Latin ianua, which means 'door', the word is the root of January, an important time when many of us ponder the past and its lessons and look to the future with firm resolutions to do things differently. Janus is the guardian of the New Year and keeper of the calendar, whose two faces look both backward and forward in time. Interestingly, the word is the root of 'janitor', or porter, someone who guards the doorways, entrances of properties.
With so much emphasis on looking into the past and future, there isn't much discussion of living in the now. How many of us avoid the present moment? (Isn't that why the present is called the 'present', because it is a gift many of us overlook?)
I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, because I don't always want to wait for a new calendar year to break old habits and start new ones. But if I were to make such a promise to myself, it would be to live more in the moment. To savor every nuance of every day, as if it were my last. Difficult to do, maybe, but in my opinion, very worth it.
Do you have a New Year's resolution? And do you find yourself living more in the past, thinking about the future, or are you a 'present-dweller'?
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