Happy New Year!

As we wake up to a new day, a new year, we embrace the future with hope and determination. We make our resolutions to improve ourselves through diet, exercise, and other health and finance-oriented promises.

There is no reason we cannot extend those resolutions beyond our personal interests and into our world. We usually aim to improve our own lives - but there is nothing to say we cannot aim to improve the lives of our neighbors. We can promise to make ourselves healthier - and we can help make our planet healthier. We can resolve to live our lives to the fullest - and we can resolve to help others live fuller lives.

One person can rarely change the world, but like a patchwork quilt, the efforts of many people, stitched together by common interests and goals, can make the world a better place. Begin with your own patch, to be sure, but there is nothing wrong - and everything right - with helping your neighbor with his patch as well.

The problem with resolutions is that they often fade and fail before January is ushered out and February blows in. Write them down, tape them to your refrigerator, share them with others. To borrow a quote, burdens shared are burdens halved, and the same goes for projects. By joining with others to create a group resolution, such as adopting a mile of the highway to clean, or a creating a mentoring group for the elementary schools, the resolution becomes a promise, and not a burden.

A new year, a new day, a new way to a better Alabama.