A New Year’s Reflection

Yes, the calendar has turned over and I am getting used to writing 2022 instead of 2021. It is one day out of 365 days. While it is a significant marker in the Roman Calendar calendar, it is just another day. I keep telling myself that, especially as I review the previous year both personally and professionally. Testing positive for the Omicron variant of COVID on the morning of December 26th threw an immediate monkey wrench into our lives. From having to cancel worship on a few hours notice to postponing my father-in-law’s inurnment on the 27th; life once again turned upside down. I believe this had been the calling card for 2021 — hold my beer and watch this! Our lives had indeed been turned upside down from early January and it continued right up until New Years Eve!

This blog isn’t a personal pity party for Padre, honest! I know that so many folks are facing continuing difficulties and that their troubles are far worse than mine. What I also know is that like others, I am seeking to make sense of 2021 (2020 as well!) whilst finding my footing in 2022. One of my Christmas presents to myself (not actually but it did arrive just before Christmas!) was a copy of Thomas Merton’s book Cables to the Ace or Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding. In it Merton mixes poetry, irony, sarcasm, theology, culture, and musings on the state of things in 1967 into a very interesting read. While there is a lot of darkness in his prose and poetry, I did find this gem that spoke to me of hope.

My worship is a blue sky and ten thousand crickets in the deep wet hay of the field. My vow is the silence under their song. I admire the woodpecker and the dove in simple mathematics of flight. Together we study practical norms. The plowed and planted field is red as a brick in the sun and says: ‘Now my turn.’ (p. 6)

Before the thunderstorms that are predicted for this evening here in West Georgia I might just sit outside and listen to the sound of the wind chimes (which remind Denise and me of her mother and mine) and perhaps hear the singing of the birds. As we walk into this new year, perhaps we should remember what Lao Tzu once said: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Let’s take that first step together, dear reader, let’s take that first step. In the words of the blessing that I use for Evening Prayer: Dona nobis pacem, grant us peace dear Lord, grant us peace.