We enjoyed a Red celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary on New Year’s Eve. Shiraz of course. We divied up the years in 7 year blocks, and reflected on each phase. Some years were filled with extreme hope and the energy of fresh beginnings. Some were joyful celebrations of work and of achievements. Some years tagged others in the long tail of disorienting failures, and grief. Some years just required relentless grit. In the end, we were glad of the grace we’d received. Grateful.
Then we began to look forward.
Looking ahead seemed a bit ominous. Around the globe there were horrendous conflicts, simmering tensions, and political maneuverings; we felt them, but had no power to influence them. Unsettling divisions within our own country compounded uncertainty around interest rates, rising costs, and seemingly relentless sickness in our community. It felt a bit like peeping over a parapet, awaiting fire from some invisible enemy. Still, we envisioned our work, our family, our community, our hopes and intentions…
New Year’s often sees us refocusing. SWOT analysis (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) thinking about the resources we each have to carry us forward, and through inevitable difficulties. What well do you draw from? What is your deepest faith in; that which you know you can rely on? Your physical prowess? Your family, friends, community? Your diligence, planning, tenacity? Your wisdom? Your humour? Your faith in God? Your rational intellect or insight? Your love for others? Your creativity? Your common sense, or instincts? Your caution or risk taking? Your…
It is profoundly important that we tend to this deep well from which we draw our inner resources. Yes, absolutely yes, to our goals and plans! And yes, of course we will nurture our physical wellbeing by eating well, resting appropriately, moving well, and deliberately shaping our thinking. Yet undergirding it all, is this deeper element of being human – what the ancients called spirit. We’ll tend that well too.
So, 2024 — wadayagot? We’ve got what it takes. Let’s go!
