Sunday Post: Happy New Year!

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.   
- Irish Toast -

For many people, January 1st seems to be a time for reflection, and I am no exception.  For the last several years, I have written resolutions/goals and have joined in on numerous challenges.  For the last several years, I have not accomplished much of what I hoped.  Not total failures, but mostly, wrong direction and too listy.  This year’s  motto will be in line with the Irish Toast, and with the mindset of simplicity and minimalism.

 

2012 Motto of the Year:  Focus on the simple, the minimal, the doing, the living. 

2012 Verses of the Year: Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”    – Isaiah 30:21, NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
- Jeremiah 29:11, NIV

The motto, for me, means that I will try to live life in a more simplistic, minimal way while focusing on the now of the doing and the living of life. I have a habit of planning, and thinking, and listing, and planning….but the doing and the living get lost somewhere in all of that.  Life can be crazy. Life can be full of chaos.  Life can be of change. Live be of stagnancy. Life can be dull. Life can be fun. Life can be unfulfilling. Life can be enriching. Life can be full of wants. Life can be too self-centric. Life can be of loss. Life can be of gains.  Life is for living – for doing.  To quote from one of my favorite books read in 2011… “Death comes to all. But life comes first.  Cherish it. Death is the destination.  But the journey, that is life.  That is what matters.”  The Way of Kings, pg 607 (hc).

Focus on the simple, the minimal, the doing, the living…. I want to live the journey.  So while my motto has potential to help eliminate the craziness of stuff, and clutter of unproductive thoughts, and attitudes - I know, that I cannot live the journey on my own accord. This is where my verses of the year comes into play ….Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”   And… For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

While I will not stop my planning and thinking and listing – all of that is good and wise – I do need to keep in mind that the Lord has already done this for me and that living my story and choosing which paths to take will do me no good if I rely only on myself.  Relying on God’s accord, and the listening to His voice gives room for the doing and the living. This is not always easy to do – the listening and relying - I fully admit as my life attests.  But, I do believe that He has outlined my story for me to live.

I hope to maintain focus on my year’s motto and verses as life does not lend itself to ease, lack of of difficult choices, and lack of questioning. Life does not always lend itself to an easy path of living.

 

To keep in accordance with focusing on the simple and the minimal, and the living of life….I am not going to make grand lengthy resolutions or goals.  The ones I do make will remain personal, minimal and simple. But, I do have a few that I will share here.

1.  New Year Journal – make an entry
This will be the place, from now on, where I write out my summary/reflections from the year prior (2011), check to see if goals/wishes from prior year came true or were met, and then write a few goals/wishes for the coming year (2012).

This idea came from a book I read last year,  Coming Up for Air.

2. My 2012 Book Manifesto
I shared my manifesto last week, and I do hope to accomplish what I have laid out.

3. Bookish Plans for 2012
The idea with these plans is to help maintain focus on the simple and the minimal, and on the doing and the living.  While also – hopefully – enriching life and  eliminating/decreasing the needing and wanting of what is the newest and latest.

 

I do wish, each and every one of you, a Happy New Year that finds you never in want but in extending friendship.

I wish you a Happy New Year that finds you living your journey.