What's your spiritual energy footprint?

It's not easy, transitioning to an energy-neutral life from an energy-sucking one.

I don't have solar panels on my roof (but they're on our home-improvement wish list). Nor do I grow my own food (the back yard is cement). Andwe don't convert solid food waste into compost (which we wouldn't use anyway, because of, y'know, all that cement).

Philosophically, though, I've made a New Year's resolution to consider applying the energy-neutral concept to other areas of life.

Like friendships, for example.

Are there some that suck more energy from my life than they give? Am I draining more from some than I'm giving? Are there some that are effortlessly mutual and rewarding?

Yes, yes and yes.

Friendships are cyclical, obviously. Sometimes, you take more than you give because you've got nothing to spare. Your friends know it, so they humor you through whatever tough time is making you so energy-dependent upon them. They know that one day, it'll be your turn to rev them through a rough patch.

Other friendships have no such energy-neutral reciprocity. Should they? Could they? If so, how do you shift into energy neutrality?

I plan to ponder the question in the new year.

Parenting seems like another area ripe for an energy-neutral re-eval. Do I yell at my kid more than I hug her? Which activity yields more energy – and less tears – than it consumes?

As for marriage, well, there's a gimme for ya. Plenty of marriages end when one party decides that he or she is expending more energy, i.e., love, than they're getting in return, over time, in their union.

My dad told me, on my wedding day, that marriage is not a 50-50 proposition. It's a 100-100 proposition. And my folks have been happily married for 55 years.

There's nothing neutral about their energetic commitment to each other.

But I think you get my drift.