Happy New Year good reader! Since some of you were kind enough to read and respond on Christmas, Day I'll muse a bit this morning as well.
I'm aware that in some cultures the beginning of the New Year is a time for literal housekeeping and turfing out unnecessary stuff. One tradition encourages throwing it out a window!
I wonder if there is a spiritual equivalent. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus invites us to live simply and forgiveness was a recurring theme in his teaching. Are the lingering resentments piling up around us? Are we so "stuff" focussed that it blocks our spiritual view?
As you enter the New Year, do you have any spiritual resolutions about simplying your life or letting go of past wrongs ? Letting go of worries? How do you hope God will be with you in 2010?
Thanks again for reading and reflecting.
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ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
ReplyDeleteAfter the events of the past year, both sad and happy, one of my resolutions is to laugh more with family and friends. It's almost 1p.m. on New Year's Day and my daughter and I have just crawled out of bed after sharing books together for the last couple of hours and laughing. These are treasured moments and more are needed as we go into 2010. We get so tied up in our daily lives of "stuff" that we forget to stop and treasure the special moments that we see daily. I hope God will help me to see and appreciate these treasured moments more frequently in 2010.
Still battling the plague of allergies here. Simplify? We have rid the house of every conceivable scented product. Even the dishwasher detergent had to go. My tongue has finally stopped burning after 5 weeks. We found a greener product that doesn't have added fragrance. I have found a way to wash my hair without shampoo, and have rediscovered old fashioned curlers like Aunt Ruth used to wear to the grocery store under a net. At first the task ahead of me seemed almost un-do-able. But once I embraced it it seems more and more natural [because it actually is]. It felt a bit like camping for awhile. No soaps, detergents, fragrance, laundry detergent or household cleaners. No cosmetics of any kind, althoug I am investigating something called edible cosmetics. Not something I ever thought I would be looking for but interesting none the less. Oh, and I think I could let go of some resentments which may in the end help to reduce wrinkles.
ReplyDeleteI think "less is more" will lead my spiritual resolutions...my time and things and thoughts can sure be "cleaned up"...along with slowing down the pace....and seeking to understand, more than being understood.....and to pick up my Bible regularly, and read it too! and, and, and.....I echo Nancy's Happy New Year to my blogging friends...and thanks to you, David, for offering a thoughtful blog-pause to each day.
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