It's a cool place to be,
New Year's Day.
It's like standing before a bend in the trail.
We know the steps,
the route
so far taken,
and figure to walk as we do.
Routine are our steps,
one
then
the other.
But the bend...
it hints at something
more,
something just
ahead.
Those feelings --
anticipation
wonder
hope --
so perfectly complement
our daily
routines.
Routines in the day.
Bends in the trail.
The parts of a journey.
-M Halmrast
I am drawn by this reframing of the traditional new year's resolution.
The reflection above is a gentle summoning to let slip away the inclination to run harder, faster, and better at the doing-of the things we know. Instead, perhaps we embrace a posture of wonder, of possibility, of being-ness.
It feels like ease of soul. Like luxury. Room to breathe, to stretch out as far as you can, to unhurriedly take up space. Try it. Relax your body and take a breath that goes deep into your belly. Hold it for a beat, and then let it completely out.
Breathing space is an incubator for patience and grace, kindness and attentiveness. For wondering what might be around the bend.
The land you are entering to take up ownership isn't like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky. It's a land that God, your God, personally tends -- he's the gardener--he alone keeps his eye on it all year long. Deuteronomy 11:10-12 MSG
Blessings, friends, for all that awaits you around the bend. It's a land that drinks water from the rain of heaven, and you do not go unseen.
Bridget