New Year Thoughts

A new year feels like writing for the first time in a new journal, one of those special ones gifted by friends who know you love new journals, no matter how many you have tucked away. Those first lines always feel so important and significant! Also, opening a new book adds to the sense of opportunities ahead and a new determination to seize them when hopes to do so before were subverted by other pressing priorities or the mere lackadaisical way in which everyday life can steal our promises.

A new year can also overwhelm with thoughts of calls to duty and responsibilities that seem impossible to fulfill when considered as a whole: letters to write, rooms to be tidied, organized and decluttered, relationships to nurture, passions to pursue and latent gifts to practice, polish and hone into true excellence.

Yet at the centre is a quiet call to be still and know: “Be still and know that I am God,” writes the psalmist in Psalm 46, verse 10. The psalm is written for the director of music, I notice, so perhaps it is perfect for the directors of the music of our lives, ourselves. The psalm describes the availability of God’s strength and ever-present help and goes on to paint a picture of the turmoil, uproar and chaos that can represent life. It ends with an invitation to be still, to experience at our centre, his presence, a mainstay and comfort. As I contemplate this new year, that is all I long for as its foundation, direction and springboard.

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