It is customary on the first day of the new year to make grand plans—to wipe the slate clean and start over, with resolutions and goals, expectations that this year will be different. And may it be so. But may we also remember that each day is a new day. In this new year, let us remember that we do not have to wait until the first of the year to make a change or to make a difference. Each breath we take can be a new start: A personal change or a contribution to the betterment of the world—it is never to late to begin again…
And so, today, on the second day of the year, I am thinking about resolutions and intentions, about who and how I want to be in the world. I am not really a resolution kind of girl… I tend to set intentions and re-evaluate in a more seasonal, cyclical pattern, every few months stopping to do some artistic reflection on where I am, who I am, and how I want to move forward. I used to do collages around the solstices and equinoxes, particularly at Winter Solstice, but then I started working in the church, and Dec. 21 got all swept away into the swirl of holiday work and Christmas services. So, New Year’s Eve or Day seemed like a good shift… But I’m getting all mired in unimportant details here. The point is that I’m stopping and reflecting here and now today, and thinking about where I am, who I am, and how I want to move forward from this point.
The title of this blog is “SELAH,” that odd word from the Hebrew Bible, meaning (my paraphrase) a place to pause and reflect on what has come before, in order to move forward into the next verse. And so, as I am contemplating phrases like, “Pray more,” “Do more art,” ”Seek rest and balance,” it occurs to me that this is a logical place to which I might return.
I’ll be doing some art today, I hope, and in the days to come. And I will look forward to using this blog as a place to pause and reflect. Life has been a whirlwind this past year, and though I always struggle with the stopping and the resting, it is seeming more and more important to my soul.
Happy New Year, friends!
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just don’t gliter the pet!