Good morning, God, and thank you much for this new day. We've had quite a bit of snow this week, and the world outside is quite pretty--and cold! It's appropriate, of course, for the season in which we find ourselves. It's almost Christmas, and the snow and the cold help to make the season seem even more Christmasy--to me, anyway.
Now that the end of the year is almost upon us, I find that I'm not quite sure how I feel about the year that's just gone by. It's been a challenging year in many ways, and strangely unfulfilling in many ways. I published a novel, but I don't have any marketing or sales success. I've started a new job, but while I've felt good about teaching the class, now that I'm back at the university, I'm back to having much less of an idea of who my students are, what they need, and how to help them. While I obviously don't want to dwell in the past, it is important to take lessons from what has gone by in order to do things better in the future, isn't it?
These landmarks of our lives--new years, birthdays, graduations, moving, etc.--can help us to keep focused, I suppose. They can help us to reflect upon what we're doing and how we're doing it. But I also know that if we're living life day by day, then we have to be focused on this day right here, right now, not dwelling on the past or thinking about the future. So when something like this changing of the year comes along, I do have to wonder just how much I should be focused on reflection. The year just gone by has been positive for the most part, but with significant negative elements added in. Can pondering these things really help me with the next year of my life, or would it be better for me to simply focus on the present moment and keep on keeping on.
A reply:
It's an interesting balance, is it not? From one side you hear "stay focused on the moment," while someone from a different direction is telling you that it's important to reflect on what has gone and what's to come if you want to live life fully. Still another side might tell you to just do as you're told and don't worry about things that aren't what you're supposed to be worrying about, while another will tell you to accept all things that come your way without worrying about what they mean or how they affect your life. Perspective--it's a wonderful thing.
There are certainly drawbacks to thinking too much about what has been. Yes, you can avoid future problems if you're able to identify causes and effects, and avoid the particular causes in the future. You can pacify yourself and make yourself feel better if you reflect on something and realize that you did the best you could, even if the outcome wasn't what you hoped it would be.
But remember something very important: all of these so-called "landmarks" are artificial, created by human beings in order to bring some order to an existence that they saw as unordered. Does time even exist, if we consider it subject to certain rules that can prove existence? What is a birthday but a designation that on this day, something happened. If there were no calendars, would there be birthdays? Would there be a New Year? Absolutely not.
You're a part of a race that feels a bit lost if it loses its methods of measurement, especially where time is concerned. You depend on your watches and calendars to give you a sense of place in time. Your home gives you a sense of place in space, but your watch gives you a sense of place in time. If you value that sense of place less than others, then your watch becomes less important to you. If you're comfortable with a higher level of uncertainty than other people are, then you won't need to feel that sense of place nearly as much as your fellow humans do.
That said, if you are able to function with a greater level of uncertainty, then you probably are a person who reflects on life and living on a regular basis, and there's a good chance that you don't need the artificial reminders of the passage of time to remind you to stop and take stock of where you are, what you're doing and what you've done, and perhaps even where you're going. And shouldn't that be a goal of life if you don't want to be centered in the material world--to be centered on life and living and the passing of each moment rather than trying to think about an entire year near the end of December. Think of all that you have to consider if you wait--and how much you'll forget and miss.
Life is a process, not an end result. You live the process each day, each moment. All forms of measurement of these moments are artificial, and they sometimes lead to less effective decisions about how to lead your life ("Oh, that can wait until the end of the month" isn't always the best thing to say!).
I've given you moments. Lots of moments. My hope is that you'll fill them with positive, loving, and compassionate thoughts and actions. If you want to know how to do this, just ask!
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