I’ve had two conversations in the last couple days that have me thinking.
It’s a new year. It’s a man-made marker in history, our way of dividing time into manageable pieces. There’s no natural way of things that would demand that it gets cataloged that way. The only rationale is that the natural change in seasons seems to follow a pattern (winter, spring, summer, fall) and so we might as well track that natural progression of things.
This year, we’ll have a leap year because really, it takes 365.25 days for the earth to circle the sun so we have to account for it on the calendar so we don’t get “off”.
But the calendar could move forward without attention. It could progress without us barely even noticing. It’s just the next revolution, the next loop.
And yet, humanity anticipates it. This change, this “new-ness” does something within us. Deep in our psyches we reflect on our lives, we make “resolutions”, we make plans, we hope next year is better than last, there’s something about “new” that either frightens us, inspires us, forces us to retreat, or in some cases, move forward with complete indifference.
It’s the way of the world to see new-ness. It’s irrational to think that because you’ve seen new-ness before that it’s any less inspiring to see it again. Think about a sunrise, a sunset, the birth of spring, the changing of colors of fall, or a new baby. New-ness brings something to our lives. It’s the way of things.
I read a friend’s blog who talked about the thoughts he had this time last year. He began last year never knowing that in 2011 he’d meet the love of his life and marry her. (Congrats Nick and Kayla!) It’s made me reflective to think of all the new-ness that awaits 2012…the things I don’t even know about yet.
When I get to this time next “revolution of the earth around the sun”…what will I look back to this moment and remember what I was thinking?
I hope that I’ll remember today as a day of anticipation, a day of optimism, a day of dreams and a day of intentions. I hope that this day is remembered as a day I took risks, faced fears, made resolutions, made decisions, got what I wanted, looked at something in a new way, cherished my relationships, forged new ones, and heard God’s voice.
I have the choice to see the glass as half-empty and wonder if any of that will really happen or maybe I just fabricated some inspiration to motivate me to lose some weight…or maybe it’s worth shooting for the moon and seeing what comes of it.
It may be the way of the world, but it’s my world. Bring on the new!