New Years 2018

New Year 2018

Transformation usually includes a disconcerting reorientation. Change can either help people to find a new meaning, or it can cause people to close down and turn bitter. The difference is determined by the quality of our inner life, or what we call “spirituality.” Change of itself just happens; spiritual transformation is an active process of letting go, living in the confusing dark space for a while, and allowing yourself to be spit up on a new and unexpected shore.

                                                                                                     Richard Rohr

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Another year

Another mess

More greed, more hate

More violence, more death

More poverty, more oppression

Yet each year we celebrate and ending

And herald a new beginning

It seems we have problem

And the problem is we want change

Not transformation

We want to change our habits

But now our hearts, our souls, our minds

But our habits don’t change, unless we change our hearts, our souls, our minds

And that isn’t just change

That is transformation

And transformation

Is a process

A scary, troubling process

It is letting go of what as been

Spinning for a while over the abyss

Like a high flying trapeze artist

Suspect over, nothing

And then only then, after those moments of sheer terror

Do we find something to hang on to

That something new

That something next

And that… well we are never quite sure what it is going to be

When we first let go of what was

It is often unexpected

Sometimes challenging

Often scary

But it is what is next

And there is always a “next”

So this New Year

Don’t resolve to change some habits

Take a moment to breath

And think

Pray, meditate

Then let go

Spin

And grab hold, of God’s new thing

Happy New Year!