What's in Your New Year

   

  Something about January inspires us to look back, look ahead and make resolutions. Perhaps it's all those clean, blank pages on the calendar that inspire us.  Or, to paraphrase Anne Shirley of Green Gables fame, "it's a whole new year with no mistakes in it," that motivates us to examine how we live.
      There is an abundance of books and poems and songs offering advice for a New Year.   Many focus on the "happy" of Happy New Year.  I've just read a blog post where someone had decided her next twelve months would be guided by the mantra, "I will chose to be happy." 
    In January, book stores can count on big sales of Chicken Soup books, some general, others dedicated to grandmothers,  golfers, nurses, cat lovers, dog lovers, teenagers, hockey players, et al.... all filled with stories to make us happy, whatever our walk of life.
    Remember when Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach was all the rage?  Here we have 528 pages of advice for finding happiness.  Among her suggestions for January are: organize your desk, discard as much as possible, hang new calendars, lay in a supply of good chocolate and whipping cream to get you through the dark days of winter.  (Note to self: visit chocolate shop!)
     A friend of mine, looking for peace of mind in the new year,  has taken a mantra from Julian of Norwich, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

    The Gate of the Year, by Minnie Haskins and famously quoted by King George VI on the eve of World War II gives us a lesson in faith.
"Put your hand into the hand of God/That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!"  Good advice as we begin a new year.

   There is a tradition among some Presbyterians to read Psalm 90 as the old year turns into the new.  This psalm reminds us that the Lord has been our dwelling place for generations, that He existed before time, and that our days are like the grass in God's sight.  At the end, the psalmist prays for God's favour and blessing on our work.  
   So, do you make resolutions in January?  Do you keep them?  Why not resolve to read and memorize Psalm 90.  Or will you resolve to put your hand into the hand of God and tread safely into the darkness?  Perhaps you'll resolve to sing more often,

to give more freely or to begin and end each day with prayer.
   Whatever your rituals, I wish you a Happy New Year and a blessed and productive year in God's service.