New Year's Eve

On the cusp of a new year we find ourselves in a threshold moment.  Our minds drift back with hindsight to trips taken, experiences and encounters that filled the days of 2018, and even moments when we sensed a trace of God's grace.

What moments this last year still cause a smile to cross your face?
What hurts still linger and last, sitting restless in your soul?
What insights or ideas were awoken in the last 365 days?

Yet, this day isn't only about looking back.  We look around at our lives today.  If you were to take a piece of paper right now and write, "The Good; The Bad; and The Ugly" what are some of the things in your life right now would you categorize and classify in each?  Or are some things on the line.  Or are some things unable, unwilling to fit neat and tidy in those boxes?  Play around at bit with this.  Or, if you don't like that, my spiritual director always asks, "How is it with your soul?"  That is a good question everyday and especially today.

So, we look back in hindsight to see what we carry with us.
We look around for insight into who we are today.

Finally, we look to 2019 with foresight.  What do you pray might unfold in the year to come?  What are you so excited about you can't wait to hang up the calendar tomorrow?  Are there things right now you would rather press the pause button on your life and not race/rush into a new year.

To spend time today celebrating not with champagne or too much food, but a kind of celebration of life for what is was, is, and will be.  This makes New Year's Eve day holy.  Pause today.  Breathe in all that was.  Let God sit beside you holding what is.  And find ways to stay open to the sacred every day in the coming year.  When we do this, there is more than a trace of God's grace in our lives.

Blessings today and as we cross the threshold into a New Year.