Aurora Gladness: a New Year Has Dawned
What a gift that we get to start over every day, every month, every year.
I love imagining the year as one continual paper calendar, the months extending down, down, down like a scroll unfurled. And then, as if by magic, sometime in the night of December 31st, we’re shot up to the very top again to begin the year anew. Starting the year on top – that’s a good feeling.
Resolutions for each new year are a positive thing, because they signify that we want to begin putting energy into the things we value. And resolutions are the best if they’re not make-or-break, if you can’t fall off the wagon once and fail.
I realize that last year, my unspoken resolution was simply endurance. To keep our family together through multiple moves and transitions; to keep our health, finances, and kindness toward one another intact as we pushed ourselves to the mental and physical limit with the tiny house build.
In many ways we failed in these aspects, having shredded our immunity with stress, drained our resources dry just to procure basic shelter, and snapped at the kids all too often, reacting from impatience, exhaustion, and fear for the future.
However, by the skin of our teeth, we’ve come into the new year at least still here! We’ve survived, endured, and still love each other at the end of the day.
As we emerge into port with ripped sails and a battered hull, this coming year my resolution is joy. Like love, joy does not capriciously happen. It’s an action, a pursuit, a deliberate, patient seeking. This year, I choose joy.
I choose joy
So through the day, I am beginning to jot down a record of moments that make up the best parts of the day, the parts we smile about but don’t always take time to really be grateful for. When we lay in bed in the still of the night, do we dwell on tasks yet undone, future worries, past regrets? Could we instead dwell at the end of a long day on the simple, sweet joys?
This year, when it is not always easy, I will pursue joy and a dawning of thankfulness.
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord! You have put more joy in my heart than they when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:6-8
Big Country and baby simple joys