a new beginning

It is a new year! And you can count on me for an earnest journey seeking purpose, finding my way in this world. Being painfully self-aware and on the internet, no less. I mean, I don't know how else to be, really.

I received the book 'Here and Now' by Henri Nouwen from my (foster) parents for Christmas. It is a great little book of meditations and reflections. So I have decided that for the next little while, I am going to put them up here. They aren't too long, either.

from the chapter, Living in the Present

One: A New Beginning

A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us: "I have a gift for you and can't wait for you to see it!" Imagine.

Is it possible that our imagination can lead us to the truth of our lives? Yes, it can! The problem is that we allow our past, which becomes longer and longer each year, to say to us: "You know it all; you have seen it all, be realistic; the future will be just another repeat of the past. Try to survive it as best you can." There are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears a great lie: "There is nothing new under the sun ... don't let yourself be fooled."

When we listen to these foxes, they eventually prove themselves right: our new year, our new day, our new hour become flat, boring, dull, without anything new.

So what are we to do? First, we must send the foxes back to where they belong: in their foxholes. And then we must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills to our life saying: "Let me show you where I live among my people. My name is 'God-is-with-you.' I will wipe away all tears from your eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past is gone."

We must choose to listen to that voice, and every choice will open us a little more to discover the new life hidden in the moment, waiting eagerly to be born.