gratitude

for the year 2008 i am grateful for opportunities, learning experiences, trust and loss of trust, crossed boundaries, grief, loss, pain, renewal, solitude, friendship, family, love, and fear.

i leave behind indecision, isolation, and incongruity.

in 2009 i want decisiveness, integrity, friendship, wildness, courage and to create sacred space in my home.

welcoming in a new year reminds me of one of my favorite hymns: Come, Let Us Anew by Charles Wesley (see text below). this hymn reminds me that time rolls on, and there are key moments in which i renew my commitment to my journey, as others do to theirs, whatever that journey may be. i am grateful for these moments. i believe beginnings and renewal have a deeper archetypal meaning. i believe that this life is one stage of many on a path of eternal progression. physical, spiritual, intellectual and moral development are all essential pieces of this progression; and significant beginnings and moments of renewal, like the new year or spring among many others, can be small steps toward the progress we pursue. perhaps, as the hymn states, "entering into [the] joy [of the Master]" and "sit[ting] down on [his] throne" are symbols for continuing from one stage of the journey to another, for those moments are potentially joyful and magnificent. and yet even those "fugitive moment[s] refuse... to stay," and another moment offers a new opportunity for growth. so i take this moment to recognize that 2008, with all its challenges and pains, triumphs and joys, has brought me to where i am now, and i am a better person for having lived it; and i welcome 2009 and enjoy this "fugitive moment" of gratitude. and so it is.

Come, Let Us Anew
by Charles Wesley

Come, let us anew our journey pursue,
Roll round with the year,
And never stand still till the Master appear.
His adorable will let us gladly fulfill,
And our talents improve
By the patience of hope and the labor of love,
By the patience of hope and the labor of love.

Our life as a dream, our time as a stream
Glide swiftly away,
And the fugitive moment refuses to stay;
For the arrow is flown and the moments are gone.
The millennial year
Presses on to our view, and eternity's here,
Presses on to our view, and eternity's here.

Oh, that each in the day of His coming may say,
'I have fought my way through;
I have finished the work thou didst give me to do.'
Oh, that each from his Lord may receive the glad word:
'Well and faithfully done;
Enter into my joy and sit down on my throne;
Enter into my joy and sit down on my throne.'