Public Health Intersection

So here we are at the beginning of the New Year, with everyone talking about New Year’s resolutions which usually focus on how they are going to make their life better, be better people, change bad habits, etc.

As my sweetheart and others who know me well will tell you, in order to get my juices flowing to write something, I need a theme.

I tried really hard to come up with a New Year’s resolution based theme, like actually staying on schedule with my blog, being a better parent, partner, boss, etc. but nothing seemed to resonate. Although, that shouldn’t let me off the hook about addressing the aforementioned issues, I needed more.

One thing I enjoy is playing with language. Having been an English teacher, speech writer, poet and all around wordsmith, I started playing with the term New Year’s Resolution and eventually came up with New Year’s Restitution, which in turn became the title of this blog.

It resonated for me on two levels, the first was concept of giving back, making right and so on. For many of us, who work hard every day in our organizations to make the world a better place, it is sometimes difficult to imagine doing even more giving back and making right with rest of our time.

The second concept was restoration, trying to bring things back to normal.

Both of those seemed to me to provide a pretty good focus for the coming year.

So while I may not be timely with my blog, I will be trying to make sure that every day I focus myself and the work of PHFE towards giving back and making things whole.

In addition, as a student of language and sometimes poet, I couldn’t help myself from including words that rhyme with restitution.

The three that I liked most were absolution, attribution and contribution. Since they also rhyme with resolution, in 2012 I will strive to be more forgiving, give credit where credit is due and not sit on the sidelines when I ought to be involved.