New Year's Blessings

Blessings of a fresh new year to you friends! I hope you enjoyed your holiday celebrations, connecting with your dear ones, and getting some much needed rest and renewal after another exhausting year.

As is often the case, I came into the past week with a long To Do list of things I'd like to get done before returning to work and school mode. And I come to week's end with very few items checked off.

Thankfully, I realized a few days into the week I did not need or want more decision-making, tasking and efforting. What I longed for were long, slow mornings, sleeping in, then reading and journaling in bed. I wanted to spend whole days and evenings with dear friends talking about our lives--the gifts and hardships we've experienced in 2021, and our hopes and dreams for the year ahead. I gave myself over to playing with my boys and their new Christmas toys and games, watching whole movies in bed with them, when we're not rushed to be anywhere else. It's been restful, playful, connecting, restorative. I feel like myself again.

When we lose ourselves in the flurry of activity, in the checking-things-off-the-list approach to a day or a week, how do we bring ourselves back, recenter, reorient ourselves? How do we discern if the life we are living is the one we actually want to be living, and make course corrections when we find we're off-track?

For me, the answer is prayer and reflection. Whether I do that in the quiet of my own bedroom, curled up with a guiding book and my journal, or whether I join with others asking meaningful questions, and really listening to ourselves and one another, I need regular pauses to really listen for guiding wisdom.

A new year is of course ripe for that kind of listening and reflection. I used to want to get it all done by December 31st, hit January 1 with clarity about goals and resolutions. With lived experience, I've found the reflection takes more time and space. Honestly, I like to give myself the whole month to look back, look ahead and re-orient myself for the new year.

If you are someone who longs for that kind of deeper reflection, or are at least curious about the gifts it may offer, I'd love to support you. Whether it's attending the Sacred Pause Retreat next Sunday, joining the Tuesday evening contemplative circles, or participating in the weekly FLOW of prayer, spiritual reading, and reflection, I hope Deep Waters may offer you space to really listen to your life and find new joy, meaning and direction in the year ahead.

Grace and peace in your 2022,

Kimberly