What will the new year bring us? 365 opportunities.
The pastor of the church I attend here shared this quote as a part of his last 2018 Bulletin column to inspire us as we approach the dawn of a New Year: “I will seek elegance rather than luxury, refinement rather than fashion. I will seek to be worthy more than respectable, wealthy and not rich. I will study hard, think quietly, talk gently, and act frankly. I will listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with an open heart. I will bear all things cheerfully, do all things bravely, await occasions and hurry never. In a word, I will let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.”
He went on to share that the New Year always brings the anticipation of joy, happiness and the idea of starting over and anew. The New Year comes to give us a fresh hope for a better future. The New Year lets us dream and once again know that we will face challenges with confidence.
For years, I have always had the same goal for the New Year—make myself better than the year before. I started on this betterment a bit early. We were approaching Thanksgiving and I was approaching another birthday. I recognized that changes needed to be made so I set forth to change them and for just over a month now, I have followed through. That’s my goal as we enter into 2019—to continue commitment to the follow through.
After a horrific year in 2015, I made some significant changes in both 2016 and 2017 that impacted me in the most positive ways spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. Regrettably, some how or another, I veered off course this year 2018. I made some poor decisions that catapulted me straight back into the past, back into a person I was not very proud to look at in the mirror. I neglected my spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health for stretches of time this year. I was inconsistent in prayer and infrequent with church attendance. I was not resolute to my internal values. I was not steadfast in safeguarding my integrity. I lacked courage of my convictions. I was not growing in either grace or virtue. I failed to be the person I have the potential to be. I could lay blame to the challenges that were taking place at various times this year but that is a selfish, weak and pathetic excuse. The blame lay strictly upon me.
I am not here to proselytize to you, but I had failed God in addition to myself. It was not until I was crying inside of a Catholic confessional this afternoon that I realized how much this failure and neglect of myself spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically had affected me, my heart, and my soul over the past year. The pastor’s counsel in those minutes, in addition to the message delivered at mass that evening, was something I was hungering and desperate for. It provided me with the fresh hope for a better future. And not just a better future, but a healthier and restored one.
So, as I move forward, I will seek refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy more than respectable. I will act frankly, listen with an open heart, bear all things cheerfully, do all things bravely, await occasions, let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. It is with a new and refreshed heart that I begin 2019. A new year of 365 opportunities for my work in progress human self to continuously and consistently dedicate to the follow through.
Happy New Year. God Bless. I hope that each of you are also able to begin the new year committed to your personal follow throughs with new and refreshed hearts.