Villagersonline : blogs : Karen : New Year's longings

From: Karen
Date: Wed Jan  5 15:29:54 MST 2005
Subject: New Year's longings

Responses
rodhugen: No Subject (1/12/05)
Suki: New Year's Thoughts (1/15/05)

Responses (sorted by date)
Suki: New Year's Thoughts (1/15/05)
rodhugen: No Subject (1/12/05)

I could relate to the New Year's resolution post, Rod. A couple of people on New Year's Eve challenged me to claim something for the new year, whether a Bible verse or a resolution. Nothing wrong with those ideas, per se, so why have I always rebelled against this notion of new take on a new year? In part because the change of the date seems so artificial, arbitrary. There's nothing concretely, nothing organically different about Jan 1 versus Dec 31. So I struggle to relate to the "today's the day to start a change" thing. And the not-wanting-to-fail thing sucks, too. Rather than look ahead, what I want to do is think back on the previous year, something I historically have done with a touch of melancholy/cynicism, so I'm working on reviewing yearly events with a less cynical/Eeyorish tint in my glasses. How about a little less Eeyore in 2005? My junior high/high school friend Wendi always *has* referred to me as Pooh....perhaps Pooh is my True Nature... when I'm not acting like Eowyn or someone sword-brandishing...or maybe I have several True Natures?
OK, without getting too personal/specific, my New Year's longing is to continue to embrace the longings of 2004. And to continue to become the Pooh-Eowyn I was meant to be. My longings this year are to find more honey, to avoid getting stung by honeybees, to slay some Nazgul lord and live to tell about it, and even to find a Faramir, if supernaturally possible.

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From: rodhugen
Date: Tue Jan 11 23:57:55 MST 2005
Subject:

Thanks for your comments and for fleshing out a bit the whole 'new year' thing. Longing for what I've longed for for a long time always stinks. I've thought a lot lately about God meeting our needs but not our desires since our desires are insatiable and constantly replaced by new desires when old ones are met. The starkness of longings is different, I think. I suspect God honors the deep longings by becoming the fulfiller of those longings. If we'll allow him to. Anyway, I pray that God will speak into your deep longings in the artificial age of 2005.

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From: Suki
Date: Sat Jan 15 11:05:04 MST 2005
Subject: New Year's Thoughts

Right before Christmas I was talking with Alex (you may have met her at Vespers last Sunday) about New Year's, and she described how in Ecuador the celebration is more about looking back than looking forward. I like that concept of savoring (and/or grieving) the collective moments before moving on, and so I took some time to do that with the turn of the calendar. As I looked through my journals and such from '04, I realized again how anxiety-ridden I was most of the year. That seems to have resolved a good bit toward the end. I think God recently showed me a fuller picture of my identity and invited me to walk in and rest there awhile. So, while I added a few disciplines at the start of last year (some of which are still magically in tow), with this beginning-of-the-year I feel more drawn to add BEING – just living in the moment more passionately. Perhaps this is a discipline in itself for people like me. Related to this is a verse (Deut 12:18) that I ran across recently: “And you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to.”

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