New Years Day Thoughts…
It’s the 1st of January! I truly hope & pray that 2023 is not just better than 2022, but is a great year for you, your family and your community!
Even if external things are difficult we have so much to be grateful for! Amazing things that we take for granted every day like eyes to not just see, but to appreciate all sorts of beauty. Ears to hear music. Taste buds to enjoy food. The sensation of touch or the feeling of a cold wind or the warm sun on our skin. Laughter. The ability to be kind to someone else.
None of those things are required for existence. They are all gifts for us to enjoy, but we mostly overlook them. Not because they aren’t amazing. Because we have them available to us constantly. It’s an interesting paradox that when something incredible is always there, rather than seeing that as even more amazing, we usually lose all appreciation of that thing.
Each of the things i mentioned are gifts from our creator. An infinite being who desires to personally know and love each of us. Even me. And who wants us to have joy in an intimate, loving relationship with him. Absolutely mind-bogglingly amazing…
The Christmas — New Year period has been challenging for me. I knew it would be because it’s the first time I’ve been separated from my daughters at Christmas. I could have filled up my time with lots of events to distract myself, but I chose not to. I think it’s important to face things and walk through them with awareness. To experience the pain, acknowledge it and hopefully in doing so be able to move past it. If we don’t do that we mutate something normal, yes pain is normal, into some twisted, cancerous thing that just lurks in the shadows and grows.
It’s been challenging. But not ‘bad’ which is how most people seem to interpret this. I mean challenging like a hard session in the gym, with a few added bruises from sparing someone strong and fast, that I’ve completed now. I’ve done it and I feel that post workout relaxation and peace while simultaneously feeling myself growing stronger. I’m coming out the other side better than I went in. I think that’s what dealing with painful things in a healthy way looks like.
So let’s choose to appreciate the ‘normal’ things every day and to also walk though our challenges knowing they are normal and that we get to decide whether we are diminished or strengthened by each one.
If we choose to do those things I think 2023 might just be a great year.
