Of Things Not Yet Here (Dec. 31st, 2014)

 

“And now we welcome the new year.  Full of things that have never been.” 

~Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s the ending of the Christmas season. We were waiting for the innocent light born in a manager. The days will be growing longer now. The nights shorter. We’ll have to take the tree down soon. The beautiful evergreen that has sparkled and twinkled in our home for weeks. The Epiphany is soon to come.

It’s good to pay attention to endings because they are sad and meaningful. But Americans don’t like sad and meaningful things. We like happy, ever-after endings. We don’t take time to mourn.

 Being fully aware means looking at and experiencing everything. Not pushing anything aside. Not ignoring anything. Being fully aware is painful and so is saying goodbye. And now is the time that we say goodbye to last year. We say goodbye to the pain and sadness. We say goodbye to the missing and the longing.  We acknowledge everything and we say goodbye.

In the English language, we have many verb tenses. I can talk about the future in many different ways, trying to understand or control it.

By this time next year, I will have been doing so many things for such a long time. I will have done so many things.

 But we can’t predict or control the future. The New Year is a celebration because it is a beginning. Because it is new. There’s excitement, an expectation, of things not yet here. There is a freedom in the not knowing.

“Make New Year's goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living life in the year to come.”  ~Melody Beattie

~New Year’s Resolutions~

1. I resolve to enjoy reading. To not feel like reading must fit some purpose, but that it can simply be.
2. I resolve to enjoy writing anything, bad or good, for whatever reason.  I won’t be concerned about writing goals or writing professionally, but I will focus on the act of writing because I am a writer.
3. I resolve to enjoy my body, with everything that it can do, because my body is an amazing work of art and science.
4. I resolve to enjoy my chosen family and my beloved relationships. I resolve to celebrate everything that makes us unique and different.
5. I resolve to be aware of myself and what I need and what I want.
6. I resolve to be fully me.

Let’s ring in the new year with an expectation of good things. Here is my prayer: May we listen with openness, speak with mercy, hold back judgment, be kind, spread joy, and walk without fear.