Making “Happy New Year” Mean Something

Let’s make Happy New Year mean something in 2021.

Making 2021 a happy New year

I missed you and writing and posting here. Really, I have missed the truth of the pandemic affecting me. I was able to come back and post one time after it began. All the while, I’ve assured myself I was riding with it and all was OK. Large parts of my mind still think that’s the truth.

Yet, something kept me away from here and sharing thoughts and feelings about praying. Certainly, I was (almost) as actively praying all along, but I wasn’t bringing it here to share with you.

I missed you.

So. Here I am opening the New Year with every intention in the world (and beyond) that it will be a NEW year, in the sense that it will be different in a whole bunch of ways. I offer a few actions I believe will let each of us and all of us make 2021 a year that is both new and happy.

Let Last Year Go!

I suggest we start with my favorite phrase from Myra Goodman’s Prayer to Welcome the New Year. She suggests that we pray to honor and release last year’s sorrows. Last year was more than a problem, more than a pot full of problems. It sucked.

And it’s over. We honor the sorrows because they occupied time and energy, gave us pain and worry and fear and stress. Anything that takes that much from us must be honored as having an effect. Since 2020 is gone and is no more, we owe it to ourselves to release it. Let it go.  The more we let last year linger in our thoughts and feelings, the less we are letting it go. When it comes to mind, acknowledge it and remember that last year is no more; it is past. For the first few times, you may want to remember that aloud.

Give Virtual Hugs!

Recognize the need for hugs. Not just the value or the pleasure or the sweetness of hugs but the true and utter need all of us have for hugs. And then key into the fact that the familiar arms-around-each-other hug is not the only kind. Consider that the joy of a hug is the emotion and memory that swell from the embrace. While we feel good during the hug, acknowledge how often you think that felt good when it’s over.

So, nice if every hug is a true embrace. But since our arms are not six feet long, let’s bring into play alternative hugs… emotional embraces that feel good when they happen and when they are over.

Some obvious virtual hugs are phone calls, text messages, emails, waves or shouts when the other person is in sight.

What words can replace the arm squeeze of an in-person hug?

Please feel free to comment your virtual hugs below or email me and I’ll post the collection in one of the next three posts.

You Can Take It with You!

Despite all the difficulty of last year, it’s a 100% sure thing that everyone of us found or created and experienced some things that were beneficial, pleasing, rewarding. While we do want to let the cruddy parts of 2020 dissolve and disappear, we really should hold onto anything and everything that was good. Start a checklist today. Write down whatever comes immediately to mind. Keep the list handy for the next month; more and more items will come to mind. Add them to the list.

Here’s what I’ve put on my list so far:

If you think your ideas may jar others’ thoughts, comment below or email me. Please.

Step Up!

More than a hundred times in 2020 I consciously wanted our nation to step up and make things better, make things work, make things right. Although I continued to have those thoughts, they always recalled my granddad’s good advice: When you want something to happen, you have to be part of making it happen.

Papaw’s words tell me that making 2021 new (different) and happy begins with making it that way for me, for myself, and for my Self. True that for each of us.

I am already putting in motion my plan to step up my new, happy year. Here are some parts of that plan:

What will you do in 2021 to step up your own game? Hurray if you’re also stepping up for your community, our nation, this world. Hurray for any and every step you take.

A Prayer to Welcome the New Year (Myra Goodman)

As I stand upon the Earth with the light of the New Year dawning,
I lift my face to welcome the rising sun, grateful for the constancy
of its radiant warmth that coaxes everything to grow.
I pray for loving connection with all of creation,
remembering that I share the sun’s infinite light with all living beings.
I pray to honor and release last year’s sorrows,
to let go of separation and condemnation, and
to have faith in the essential goodness of all beings.
I pray to always live with an awareness of my original infinite nature
in gratitude for the abundance and beauty the Earth graciously bestows.
In this New Year, and forever more, I pray to walk forward in love toward the light.
And so it is. And so we let it be. Amen.

Happy New Year!!

Tim

 

 

4 January 2021

 

Posted on January 4, 2021 at 7:05 am by Tim · Permalink
In: Affirmation, Change, Commitment, Energy, Gratitude, Happiness, Mindfulness, Praying · Tagged with: , , , ,