A Special New Year’s Wish For You

And so, here we are again, on the cusp of a new year, and I have been reflecting on what to write today.

I could wish all of you who have had troubles this year, an easier year in the year ahead– and of course, I do wish that for you all; but as you so well know, life doesn’t always work out that way for us, despite all our wishing.

The opening line of M. Scott Peck’s timeless book, The Road Less Travelled, is “Life is difficult.”

Once you can accept that, life becomes a lot easier.

Except it’s not easy to accept this.

We desire so much to be in control of our lives, and the people and circumstances around us. We think that if we can bend ourselves or others to our will, then life will be the way we want it to be.

For those of us who have had a serious illness such as cancer, we learn pretty quickly that life doesn’t work like that. For those of us who have lost loved ones, life certainly doesn’t work like that.

And yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, in the words of the Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Khan, “walking on the turning wheel of the earth, living under the ever-rotating sun, man expects a peaceful life.”

G.K. Chesterton wrote that it is not that we should have a new year, but “it is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes”.

And so this New Year’s Eve, I wish you all new ears to hear what you need to hear; new eyes to see the beauty in the ordinary and the potential in your life; new feet to take you where you need to go; and a new backbone to give you the strength to cope with life’s challenges.

And as another new year unfolds may you have a new heart and soul to welcome it with openness, peace, and love.

Most of all, may we continue to support and comfort each other on our journeys, whatever they may take us in the coming year.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

“A New Year Blessing” ~ John O’Donohue
Benedictus (To Bless The Space Between Us)