New Years

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New Year 2023

 

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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We come to the end of another year

limping, stumbling forward

into a new year

 

that seems so terrifyingly

familiar

 

dazzling balls drop as we count down the old

fireworks explode

glasses are raised

bells ring

as we welcome a new year

that is replete with oldness

 

It seems we have a problem

 

And the problem is that we want change, not transformation

We want to change our habits,

our way of doing life,

but not our hearts, our souls, our minds

 

But such change does not come unless we change our hearts, our souls, our minds

 

What we need is not change, but transformation

And transformation

Is a process

 

A scary, troubling, painful, exhilarating process

It is like a high-flying trapeze artist

having let go of the bar

spinning for a while over the abyss

suspended over, nothing

 

And then only then, after those moments of sheer terror

Finding something to grab hold of and hang on to

 

It is letting go of what has been

risking that wild and terrifying flight

to find what is next, what is new

 

Sometimes we do not know

exactly what it is we grasp for

sometimes, when we first let go of what was

it feels as if we are literally grasping for air

 

the new is often unexpected

sometimes challenging

often scary

 

But it is out there

a gift of Sacred Love

 

we can fear it and fight it

we can entrench and encapsulate

and live trapped in the old

shriveled and bitter         

perched on  razor’s edge, staring into the abyss

 

or we can, in faith

trusting that God is love

that God is good

 

Take a moment to breathe

And think

Pray, meditate

 

Then believing there is something out there is that new, and good

let go of the old

spin in the confusing darkness

And then, grab hold, of God’s new thing

Happy New Year!