It may be insignificant in terms of the of moments, days and years that stream throughout creation. Resting in awareness of God's heartbeat, the pulse and perpetual flow of spoken creation, I realize that the marked moment of December 31, 2010 is puny. As Frederick Buechner says, is it "a moment of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion".
However, this pin point in time may be pivotal. Any given day (any moment, for that matter) can be the breath or the heartbeat that is the first or the last. Changes and shifts are always occuring. Some erupt in lurches while others unfold with gradual evolution. All of time contains story, and each of one us contains a portion of the neverending story.
Sometimes I envision my life as a vast library. The book shelves contain the episodes and expressions of my life. Some years appear quite thin, while other phases of life resulted in serial volumes.
Pausing to review 2010 I notice that some stories are focused upon processes, others are poetic, some are more didactic ("how to .....") There are some tenderhearted tales and others that read like high adventure. Admittedly, some have the crazy humor of a Dr. Seuss book!
How about you? What stories were written in your 2010? Perhaps some emerged from your connection to divine love and wisdom and revealed broad, even prophetic, insights. Perhaps others are scribble art similar to a Jackson Pollack painting drawn by your "self" as you wandered about wearing egocentric blinders.
What has the divine author of your life written on your pages this year? What words will you commit to memory? What events or meandering thoughts will dissolve into the past? Are there relationships and dreams that might have sequels? Were some moments so profound that they will become enduring classics? How do the experiences of the past year shape and direct your prayer for the year to come?
Blessings, Peace and Joy to you!
Pamela
Note: To my seasoned readers: Yes, this posting is an adaptation of one given a couple of years ago!
3 comments:
Per "Relationships and dreams". . . I realized this year that if relationships are to be there, then it is not only dependent upon me. I desire to keep relationships and yet if others choose to walk away then that is a choice they are permitted to make. It may be painful but God is there. Who knows who will come my way? Someone I never knew before and who will enrich my life all the more. I cannot control other people's comings and goings from my life, I can only hang in there while they choose to be around. Likewise, I have the same choice.
I'm new at this, so be gentle!
I'm not big on blogging. In so many cases, it seems more to be a pooling of ignorance than anything else, especially as regards politics and current events. I may be pursuaded otherwise.
Janet and I were talking about New Year's resolutions this morning, and I told her mine is the desire to discover God ever more readily in daily life. Just like Richard of Chichester, it's a quest to "see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly day-by-day."
The end of the year inevitably brings media reminders of those whose "struts and frets...upon the stage" of life have concluded. In 2010, there seems to have been a good number of notables who departed this life.
December 31 is like an Ash Wednesday for all of us. Yes, there'll be partying tonight, but there'll be the realization that 2010 is gone, never to return, and for the faithful, a year of opportunities to witness to the love and grace of God...some of which acted upon, but so many missed.
I wrote my colleague, Bill Hlavin, in Afghanistan this morning, suggesting that the real meaning of New Year's Day is that he and his regiment are twenty-four hours closer to coming home.
Forty years or so ago, the Moody Blues recorded a song called The Balance, and the refrain was this:
"Just open your eyes and realize the way it's always been; just open your mind and you will find the way it's always been; just open your heart and that's a start."
It occurs to me that, among so many other things, contemplation is about assimilating today's moments into the never-ending reality of God, and, by the leading of the Spirit, accommodating our perception of that reality to what it is that God chooses to reveal to us day by day. "Just open your eyes...your mind...your heart."
Maybe that's blogworthy. I don't know.
Thanks for your comments, Amy and Phil... It seems that free will is both blessing and curse when it comes to relationships, whether they are relationships with people or with God. We do need to make a choice to consent to the way our eyes, mind and hearts are literally blasted open when we say, sincerely, "Help me, gracious One, to see this (person, place or thing) as YOU see it. Suddenly, eternity opens before us. We become small, God's magnificence draws us into God...along with all others.
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