I remember with gratitude the fruits of the labors of others, which I have shared as a part of the normal experience of daily living. I remember the beautiful things that I have seen, heard, and felt – some, as a result of definite seeking on my part, and many that came unhearalded into my [...]
A new year is approaching; What does it hold for me? It may bring joy or sorrow; Oh, God, what shall it be? Sometimes my heart is anxious – I think that I should know The way into the future – Each step that I will go. But You, in Your great wisdom Must plan [...]
As the new year dawns upon us We seek your forgiveness for the sins of the past. May our one resolution for this coming year Be to walk with you from the first day to the last. Fill each day with a new awareness of your presence And make us a blessing to those around [...]
There are years that ask questions and years that answer. Zora Neale Hurston
And what does January hold? Clean account books. Bare diaries. Three hundred and sixty-five new days, neatly parceled into weeks, months, seasons. A chunk of time, of life…those few first notes like an orchestra tuning up before the play begins. Phyllis Nicholson Country Bouquet (1947)
Dark past breakfast. Dusk before supper. Down flits the snow. Fragrant wood fires, fresh air, rosy cheeks, flickering candlelight. Hunt and gather January’s joys – a playful snow walk, a seductive read, a luscious cup of cocoa, a soothing soak. Then, behind closed doors and frosted windowpanes, peek at the opalescent moon as bare-branched beauties, [...]
Now let us welcome the New Year, full of things that have never been. -Rainer Maria Rilke One year ends, another begins. The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s invocation to us to be open to receiving the New Year’s bountiful blessings challenges me to look deep within – not only in anticipation of all the [...]
There is something so splendid, so abundant about Life’s “second chances” that arrive each morning. Perhaps it’s because second chances (or third, fourth, and fifth!) are the golden opportunities we thought too good to be true the first time around. Now we know better. Let your New Year begin with a ritual of reverence and [...]
January, the month of new beginnings and cherished memories, beckons. Come, let winter weave her wondrous spell: cold, crisp, woolen-muffler days, long dark evenings of savory suppers, lively conversations, or solitary joys. Outside the temperature drops as the snow falls softly. All of nature is at peace. We should be, too. Draw hearthside. This is [...]
New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams [...]
