New Beginnings

New Year's Resolutions

I resolve to gasp at the colors of sunsets,

to love the people I love just a little better,

to lose the weight of hurts and disappointments,

to write more,

to laugh more,

to whine less,

to give thanks every day,

to embrace passion,

to push through fear,

to believe things can change

and to work for that change,

in the spirit and power of the One

who is always making all things new.

SS

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Pond Therapy

       The above photo depicts a dark pond with swirling algae and mirrored tree images - a type of pseudo Monet abstract.  I watch the swirls slowly change shape and size and realize I find it comforting as a Zen symbol of remaining fluid to life’s changes. New research by Harvard researcher Daniel Gilbert suggests that people generally fail to appreciate how much their personality and values will change in the years ahead — even though they recognize that they have changed in the past. I think this is fascinating, this human tendency to always think we’ve arrived or have everything figured out when our recreations of ourselves happen throughout our lives. 

       Dating again after 25 years is bringing this painfully home to me. It’s like change on steroids - the kind of change you experience in your early 20s. I’m having to be open to being sized up and sizing up other people with histories, likes and preferences of their own. A friend of mine jokes she'd never divorce her husband because it took too long to get him trained. Another friend stays single because she doesn't want to have to change.

       I figure the change is coming anyway. I open my arms to the movement. 

       And hope I don't drown.

DB

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What I am suggesting here is that everything in your life is a stepping-stone to holiness if only you recognize that you do have within you the grace to be present to each moment.  

                                                                                ~ Macrina Wiederkehr

     It's time to make a New Year's resolution, to turn over a new leaf.  Friends are resolving to "eat less, move more,"  to get in shape,  to finally get organized. Maybe I was feeling tired on New Year's Day, but my resolution this year is simply to live from a deeper place.  To slow down, breathe, pay attention to the moments.  It's not a measurable goal.  It's not very specific.  At least two people have asked me "But what does that mean?"  

      I've come to realize that writing this blog is a spiritual discipline in and of itself. Whether it's been a holy week or more of a hell of a week, I'm forced to write something down.  I have to find a moment of seeing the holy in the frantic busy-ness of life.  Some weeks, when I really think I've got nothing, a moment always opens up - but only because I am desperately paying attention.  For me, writing helps me to live from a deeper place. Writing forces me to put wispy fragments of thought into cohesive sentences and to think more intentionally about the ordinary fragments of my life. 

       As we begin a new year here at Ordinary Wonders, Dawn, Stacy and I thank you all for sharing our moments.  You keep us going!

AF