I’ve missed the deadline to get this post published. I am sorry if you were expecting it. It was only me who had made the deadline and at some point along the way I decided to sleep instead of write. I’ve also felt a little like I just need to breathe. On New Year’s Eve we sat around the fire outside with friends. The clouds rolled in and a gentle drizzle turned into a steady shower as the clocks ticked on towards midnight. We moved the fire in closer to our sheltered area so that the rain wouldn’t extinguish it but not so close that it could burn the couches or the roof. We didn’t want any drama. It was a spontaneous gathering and we all thought we would go to bed early but it was so good and right to talk and laugh and crack nuts and eat pudding that it was past ten o’clock when we made our way home. We scurried to our car in the downpour with our heads bent over sleeping babes and when we got home we did the same from the car into the house. An ordinary departure and arrival became a mini family baptism. A blessing from Heaven and a cleansing and refreshing all in one. We tucked children into their beds as the rest of the city geared up to celebrate. I, too, was snuggled up with my head on my pillow with the little blue flowers when the fire works began. The man of our house needs to work at midnight sometimes to make sure all goes well with the system and so he was at his desk for a while, fingers tapping the keys and eyes focused on the screen. For us, this was not a night for partying and dancing and hugging and kissing friends and strangers alike. This night was calling for peace and rest and resisting the urge to build any hype. I was only vaguely aware of distant bangs and explosions as those familiar stubble-edged lips kissed my cheek goodnight.
And here she is, never seen before 2023 marching down the ramp like a supermodel. We have no control of the time and when that clock struck twelve, in she came without any hesitation at all. Will we sit in the audience, yawning and rubbing our aching feet or are we watching, alert, attentive, observing? How many layers to her outfit and will there be any wild surprises to this routine or will we read it well as we recognise similar twists and turns of a year that has gone before? She comes with time, opportunity and a brand new colour combination. We can ignore all the clues or we can understand what might be unfolding in the days ahead like those watching closely so that they can be bang on trend as far as fashion goes. It feels to me that, right now, it is about slowing down and noticing. Regrouping. Refuelling. Asking questions. Deciding – “Am I going for the daring style of the season or am I going to stick with what is considered to be a more timeless, classic look?
Our journeys are unique. We are as unalike as the days. We each have a story to tell. We are all watching the same show but through our different eyes, felt by our different hearts. I am noticing pink wherever I look and I wore a bold green dress on the first day of this year. Pink for love. Green for life. I’m, personally, noticing the pink and green in 2023. I will shy away from all that is audacious and cutting edge in design, but will warmly embrace all that is vintage and especially if the buttons and layers and lace edging are just so. Not everyone is going to be adventurous and pioneer a new look. Not everyone should. We are all going to notice different aspects of 2023 and we have the privilege of responding in a way that will mean we are living worthwhile lives. Appropriate. Unparalleled. This year will be original with a whole new look and we may not know quite how to respond, yet humanity, as a whole, can rely on an eternal truth that is always fashionable: Love God and love others. When we aren’t sure how to be in the game never mind ahead of the pack, we have the greatest commandment of all time to show us the way. I am a little weary as I start this year, truth be told. I am watching and I am interested, but I am too tired to put in a heap load of effort. It’s comforting to me that I simply cannot put a foot wrong if all the green of my life is wrapped in a pink coat of love.
Here we are at the beginning once again. Newness is precious. A blank slate. A chance to start over. Seasons as familiar as the lines on our hands to comfort us along a path we have never trod. The sun setting so that we can sleep and the same sun rising so that we can rise too. We didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions and we decided to do absolutely nothing on January the second. Whilst I was doing nothing I tidied my cupboard, read the end chapter of one book and the beginning of the next, drank tea with one friend and then with a new family in town. I even might have gone for a small jog around the neighbourhood if I hadn’t eaten the last mince pie moments before I had the running idea. Sometimes I wonder if the less we do the more we do. It seems to me that the older I get, the less I know. In some ways I feel jaded and disillusioned and like it’s all upside down and not easily controlled. Things often don’t go to plan. Sometimes it feels like the very things I am hoping for are always just out of reach. But I also remember the time I said I thought it might rain and somebody said it was the wrong time of year for that and it would never happen and then it did. It came down proper, and completely out of season. We can philosophise and read all the best books, but maybe the very essence of wisdom is that we do not know everything. Which is why it is good to walk with God and people. It is not good for humans to be alone. Together, all stories told, we have a much better understanding of the bigger picture.
I wish you a happy New Year, but I wish for you far more than just happiness. I wish for you a baby in your womb if you have been struggling to conceive. I pray you get offered the job of your dreams if you have been, unwillingly, living without a salary. I hope you discover a way of life that makes your eyes sparkle and shine if you are stuck in the drudgery and necessity of daily grind and work that leaves you exhausted and empty. I pray that every good seed you plant will put down roots and become a million good seeds in time and that you will throw away the bad seeds before even thinking of sinking them in the soil. I wish for you starry skies and frequent shooting stars and many nights enjoying the silver light of a large, round, full moon. I wish you deep, refreshing sleep and a year of mornings where, upon waking, you are excited to get out of bed. For those longing for true love may this be the year where you find someone “to have and to hold” until death do you part. If your heart is broken and you are reeling in the betrayal or loss, may the pieces begin to merge again as healing balm is poured out by Love Himself. May your longings be satisfied and your questions answered. May you find what you have been looking for. I wish you peace and wholeness in your body, soul and spirit and a sense of being in the right place at the right time. I wish for you love and life in abundance. Pink and green, love from me x
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22 verse 37
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