The Best is to Be

As we begin to etch our lives upon the clean slate of a new year, we may gladly release a difficult year, and lift a glass and our hope to a new year of possibility. I can get caught up in the revelry of positive expectancy around the New Year, and allow myself the human pleasure of making a big deal about a moment in time. Of course, there is the sober view that living in time bounded thinking is spiritually untrue and that change can occur anywhere along the continuum of time.

Just as a life cannot be fully celebrated on one's birth-day nor love expressed with a Valentine, nor a marriage appreciated once a year, neither does the stroke of midnight necessary release the past or usher in a new future. These are just intentional pauses in the ongoing process of life where we take a breather from unconscious doing in order to reflect and appreciate what is behind us and before us and perhaps, set new intentions for the days ahead. A year-end celebration can refresh us and bring us upright in our seats as we navigate the unchartered days of 2022.

We will set goals for the New Year and some of them will come to pass, and some will not, and regardless, a year from now it will all look very different from today. You and would be surprised today to know the changes that will happen over the next year. So, with change as a given on the horizon, what if we set ourselves up for spiritual success this year? What if we established a different kind of benchmark for a good year? What if we resolved to work on the one thing we truly have control over in life and that is our response-ability to life? Here's change that could really make 2022 a fantastic year. What if you resolved to view everything that happens from the highest perspective, a view that Emerson called true prayer? What if you resolved to listen from your heart rather than from your head? How might that change your relationships with your spouse, or your kids or coworkers? I suspect that could reduce a whole lot of suffering in the New Year. What if you developed a world-class attitude of gratitude....how prosperous would you feel then?

These are my New Year intentions; my resolve to evolve my response to life, even while I play in the sandbox of worldly creations and miscreations. I trust you will find your own wise way that enhances your soul satisfaction in the coming year. If we take this path, then I can envision us reflecting back on 2022 a year hence, and realizing that we had some worldly gains and losses, yet became more of who God created us to be. That's a good year in my book....perhaps the best year of all.

Happy New Year!

With Love,

Rev. Larry