New Years resolutions have never been my thing. It never really made sense to me to look at just one day per year for resolutions to make better choices about my life. Life is too short for that. Every day presents us with the opportunity to reflect and make better choices about what we are doing with our lives, strengthening our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and trying to make a positive impact on those around us.

So as we ring in the new year, rather than recommit to annual New Years resolutions, let’s recognize the significance of this day. Another year has passed. Time is flying. Life is short. What am I doing to make the most of it?

I’m grateful to wear the cloth of this country for almost 20 years, currently serving as Lieutenant Colonel & Civil Affairs Officer in the US Army Reserves.

I enlisted as a Private because of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and my first deployment was to Iraq in 2005 where I served in a medical unit in a camp about 40 miles north of Baghdad. One of the things that struck me when I first arrived there, was a big sign at the main gate that read, “IS TODAY THE DAY?"

I saw that sign almost every day for the year that I was there – a reminder that any day could be our last – and was confronted with how true it was as I worked in a medical unit, every day experiencing the high human cost of war.

It caused me to reflect – what am I doing with my life? Am I making the most of every day, to serve God and others?

The reality is that this question, ‘Is today the day’, is just as relevant to every one of us here at home right now, as it was to us in Iraq. None of us knows how much time we have.

As we look to the year ahead, we are reminded about what is most important in life, and in death, that we find hope and inner peace in God’s unconditional love for every one of us, and that true happiness is found in service to God and others.

Thank you so much to all of you for your support and making it possible for me to do what I do. I am truly grateful.

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Today and always, I offer you my deepest aloha — respect, love, and best wishes for the year ahead. May you be blessed with a joyful, purposeful 2023.

Tulsi Gabbard

I'm not one for New Years resolutions.