New Year Resolutions are, by design, made to be broken. There is no practical or compelling reason to leave one’s present comfort zone in life. Why would you or should you? Few of us choose to change until we are compelled or forced. We might choose change if it promises something better than we have today. But that change is usually immediate. The invitation to change is often unexpected and unsought. Jesus says to Peter, “Come, follow me.” The story says that he dropped everything and went. The invitation was better than fixing nets for the rest of his life.
Change is rare. Yet often, that invitation is the Sacred Threshold to the grand adventure of your life, the beginning of your spiritual maturity and growing into the fullness of your Soul, seeded in you from the very beginning. It’s the Holy “Yes” to new life.
All of our great spiritual traditions speak to the unfortunate reality that change is necessary for growth. Against your wishes and in deep conflict with your ego, change requires a total surrender that becomes an opening to a pathway of transformational becoming.
Rarely do you find something that you were missing or become someone you were not. Instead, it’s that Someone finds you. You are grabbed, held, and loved by Someone. As Teresa of Avila once wrote, “you find God in yourself and yourself in God.” In that embrace, you become new.
This year, instead of resolutions, I offer you the blessing that a dear friend of mine wrote. Her words speak to the shape of this journey, to living in such a way that we surrender, grow and heal.
May we each continue those endeavors that bring us meaning and joy.
May we do what we can to respect and heal our bodies, minds and spirits.
May we accept with grace those things we cannot change.
May we continue to deeply connect to the natural world and gain sustenance from it.
May we continue to bathe ourselves in gratitude,
including our walking together on this journey of life,
whether it be smooth sailing or traversing rocky terrain.
We are in this together,
Cameron