It’s such a potent time of year isn’t it? A time of endings and beginnings as we close one year and begin a fresh new year. Many of us are thinking about new year’s resolutions and taking stock at this time, but how many of those typical resolutions are just ‘self’ improvement projects rather than ways to actually embrace the life we already have right here and now?

I recently read an article about presence over productivity and it really struck a chord with me. Since we’re coming up to New Year’s Eve I found it to be a timely reminder that a life well lived is not about getting, doing or having. It’s about being true to who we are and living our moments and our daily life fully.

As Annie Dillard says, “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” If we’re always trying to get somewhere else, what happens to the moment we’re actually living now? To live a full life we need to be here for it. To live a present life is to live a happy life.

We gather around the Lord’s Table ON New Year’s Day!!

Sometimes new opportunities present us with a chance to be try something. We may not always get it perfect, but we never know what joy we bring to someone along the way. Like the little boy who was in a wedding for the first time.

As he marched down the aisle, he took two steps, stopped, and turned to the crowd on either side of him, putting his hands up like claws and roared. So it went: step, step, roar, step, step, roar, all the way down the aisle.

Later, someone asked him what he was doing, the child said, “ I was the ring bear.”

Remember what Thomas Jefferson said, “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”

May 2023 be filled with peace, presence and adventure.

See you Sunday!!