The first of January is another day dawning, the sun rising as the sun always rises, the earth moving in its rhythms, with or without a certain as the day of new beginning, separating the old from the new. So it is: everything is the same, bound into its history as we ourselves are bound.
Yet we also stand at a threshold, the new year something truly new, still unformed, leaving a stunning power in our hands:
What shall we do with this great gift of Time, this year?
Let us begin by remembering that whatever justice, whatever peace and wholeness might bloom in our world this year, we are the hearts and minds, the hands and feet, the embodiment of all the best visions of our people.
The year can be new ground for the seeds of our dreams. Let us take the step forward, together, onto new ground, planting our dreams well, faithfully, and in joy.Last week we looked at the first paragraph, noting how often the advent of something startlingly new for us bumps up against the experience of business-as-usual in those around us. Today I want to take up the next part of Kathleen's reflections:
[W]e also stand at a threshold, the new year something truly new, still unformed, leaving a stunning power in our hands:It is important for us to recognize and honor the fact -- and it is a fact -- that when we go through a truly transformation experience like the birth of a child or the death of a parent, for instance, something really has changed. To those around us who were not, are not, as intimately involved in may want to go back to "normal," may urge us to do so to, yet it's okay for us to affirm that there is no going back to "normal." Perhaps more accurately, for us there is no going back to that old "normal;" there is, as it's often called, a "new normal." When I'm talking with grieving family member after the death of a loved one I'll often stick my arm out, palm up, and tell them to expect to feel as though the world has "turned upside down." I'll turn my hand over, palm down now, by way of illustration. "It's also important to realize and prepare yourself to accept that the world will never turn right-side-up again. This upside-down world will become your "new normal"."
The same is true of more easily recognized as "positive" transformations. Our lives have changed. Despite being "just another day" in some respects, this "new day" is new.
It's also worth noting that this is true on a much smaller scale with each and every moment of each and every day. Yes, when I go home this evening after work, my dogs will start running around, barking for their dinner. And after I feed them they'll start charging for the door and their walk. It's happened a thousand times before. And yet, at the same time, this particular running, barking, and charging has never happened before. If I am awake, if I am aware of my life -- rather than just sleeping through the assumptions of it -- then I will notice that this moment has never come before, and will never come again.
What helps you to savor the uniqueness of this particular iteration of something that's part of the normal course of things? How have you been able to acclimate yourself to a "new normal"?
Pax tecum,
RevWik
