do you tackle the flip of the calendar? Resolve? Rebelling?

It’s a new year. 2019 has come, one of our DACC gals, Laura-Lee, so hopefully commented, with 365 new possibilities. How do you tackle the flip of the calendar? Resolutions? Rebellion against resolutions? Same-old, same-old?

New Year resolutions with a twist

I’m not much for resolutions at the beginning of the year. Long experience (I’ve had almost 50 calendar flips, now) tells me if I’m not resolved to sort myself out in March or August, I probably won’t have stickier stick-to-it zazz in January. But I am a wonder-er. I reflect (ruminate – unproductively?) a lot. Consider. Get curious about. Was I grateful for the goings-on of 2018, and will I learn from the wobbly, worrisome bits? Did I grow in generosity? In inclusion and understanding? Is my thinking smaller than it was a year ago? More expansive?

And who will I mature into in 2019? Will I have suffering or crisis thrust into my life? Will my choices bring those things down on my family? This new year, will I choose to live with Goodness and courage, or will I make excuses for a life that is small and withholding and afraid?

I wonder.

Letting go – and holding on – in the New Year

My friend Candace posted her new year hopes on Facebook this week,

“After sitting back and hiding for a number of years I’m going to do something different this year…I’m not going to focus on changing my life or better myself, or eliminate the negative things or people in my world. You will NEVER succeed in doing that. I’m going to do my best to look at others, to try to see things differently, and give of myself and my time to help others. This is hard for me because I am extremely comfortable in my bubble…”

I was reminded of what one of our former DACC gals, Shandra, posted on Instagram the other day:

When to let it be, and when to let it go, in 2019

There are some worries and wonderings we’re just not meant to carry: hate, shame, pettiness, the endless comparison to our Others. G’head. Let those go. Just open your hands, picture the thing that is keeping you stuck and holding you down, and invite the Breath of Life to do what you cannot. To blow that clear off your unclenched palms.

But some things won’t be let go of. They are things that simply are: a grief that has marked us for life. An illness that is chronic and forever. A child that is wandering. A parent that is abusive in his brokenness. The weather, the financial markets, the inevitability of daylight savings time. Sometimes life is just happening to us. No amount of resolve or positivity is going to alter the thing that simply Is. G’head. Sit with these. Just open your hands, picture the thing that is happening to you, over which you just have zero control at all, and invite the Breath of Life to do what you cannot. To encircle that “Let it be” constant in a comfort and courage all its own.

Image/quote courtesy of https://www.instagram.com/liveinthedetails/?hl=en