Forget resolutions, let go

i am running into a new year

i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twenty-six and thirty-six
even forty-six but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me

—Lucille Clifton

published in Good Woman: Poems and A Memoir 1969-1980

My favorite lines are the last ones. When we undertake change, there seems to be some necessary apologies, regret, or  second guessing. The general consensus, with those I have discussed this, seems to be that such change is  a step in the right direction. Hopefully we will have the courage to let go of those old, self-limiting beliefs.