Is it time to make improvements in your life?

More than 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians would commence their new year based on a lunar calendar — the rise of the first crescent moon after the spring equinox (around March 25). It was their civilization that started the custom of New Year's resolutions. Some things never change. I often wait until the end of March to make my resolutions, too.

About 2,000 years later, the Romans figured their own calendar was not "keeping up with the times," so to speak. In 153 B.C. the Roman Senate made Jan. 1 the start date of their year, based on a solar calendar patterned on the Egyptian's. But it took another 100 or more years to make the resolution real. Sometimes, don't you get the feeling that it will take that long to complete certain resolutions?

The problem was that the Roman calendar had not only become inaccurate astronomically, it had become corrupt. January, for example, had begun to fall in the autumn of the year. The high priests in charge of the calendar, the Pontiff Maximus, had become so crooked that sometimes they lengthened the months or the year to keep certain officials in office or abbreviated months to shorten an enemy's tenure. So Julius Caesar authorized a new calendar effective in 46 B.C. However, to make it right with the sun, the year before lasted more than 445 days.

For many of us to fulfill some resolutions, we need those added days most years.

This Julian calendar was in force for the next 1,600 years in Europe. Then, in 1582, Pope Gregory made more changes, again readjusting the calendar to fit the Easter of the Council of Nicend. But for nearly 200 years, the Protestants — as one historian has stated, "could or would not learn from the Catholics. The Northern Europeans kept the old, outdated (or, better, misdated) calendar." Likewise, making resolutions, we sometimes are hesitant to learn from others — especially if it means giving up a few days and especially if we didn't come up with the idea ourselves.

The first month of the Julian and now our Gregorian calendar is named for Janus. Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors (ianua), beginnings and endings. Hence, he is represented with a double-faced head, one looking forward the other looking back. This two-faced god was worshipped at the beginning of both planting and harvest times. He was recognized at marriages, births and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person's life.

To improve there must be change. Change and time are inextricably linked. There can be no improvement without change, which is not to say all change is improvement.