Sunday Reflection: One good word for 2024

Happy New Year, friends!

A symbol of 2024's word of the year

Every year since 2003, I've tried to keep a special Word of the Year in mind, a touchstone of sorts to hold me steady when life becomes challenging. My word for 2023 was Appreciation, and there definitely was lots to appreciate. (Don't worry, though I'm picking a new word, I'll continue with the Monday Music Appreciation posts I started in 2023 just because I love to share music here!)

It's interesting to look back on my words of the year -- moodled here since 2017 -- and other words before that can be found in letters between myself and Cathy, my best friend (we've been keeping each others' letters since we were 10 years old, so there is a record of words in New Year's letters if we go back and look). 

Just for fun, these have been my words for the last seven years:

2023 Appreciation

2022 Light

2021 Unity

2020 Community (which was an interesting choice because Covid-19 meant we all had to isolate!)

2019 Blessing

2018 Me (a year to rediscover my personal way of being after full-time motherhood)

2017 Tenderness

And in years before that, Freedom, Joy, Balance, Trust, Hope, and I don't remember what all!

2023 was a very difficult year in my books. I just deleted a long paragraph about its challenges because I'm sure most of us had enough of our own -- we don't need to read anyone else's!

Of course, there were good things, too. Friendships. My dream job at the Winspear Centre for Music. The garden my family planted for me when I broke my foot, and which really produced. My mom and dad's lovely new condo. A trip to Vancouver Island, and visits with special friends out there. Rafting on the Athabasca River near Jasper with favourite folks from Belgium. Calgary coffee breaks on our trips south to be with Lee's dad. His new apartment, and the fact that he's not spending this winter alone. Time with my sisters and parents. The first trip to Jasper with our kids in 6 years, and pubbing with them (they're all of age now)! 

Like most years, 2023 was a mixed bag. The good thing is that I've become better at handling life's ups and downs thanks to a 14-week online Wisdom School program through the Centre for Action and Contemplation. It helped me to let go of unhealthy expectations (mostly, ever in progress!) and live out of an undivided heart, to be more "grounded" -- though it's going to take the rest of my life to grow into the way of wisdom. 

The Centre for Action and Contemplation and a few recent experiences have helped me to decide on my Word of the Year for 2024. RESILIENCE is also the CAC's focus for 2024, and it's something that I suspect we human beings will need more and more as our world continues to face so many challenges. 

Resilience means not giving up, moving forward with compassion and determination even when things get difficult or seem impossible. Resilience comes from working together to improve creation's situation in whatever ways we can. Resilience arises when we remember that we are not alone.

What's your word of the year? Or your focus for 2024?

I rediscovered a Psalm Prayer from 2016, one that I will be praying as I try to live into the kind of resilience that our planet needs right now. 

A New Year's Psalm

We praise you, 
O Creator,
for new beginnings -- 
fresh footprintless fields with unplanned paths,
clear calendars and unwritten words,
unperceived passages that we will discover in the year ahead.

We thank you for the year that has passed

with its many challenges, 
loves and losses, 
ups and downs.

We offer you our struggles and sorrows 
from the last twelve months
and ask that you bless us and heal us as needed.

We are grateful for the joys

and the moments that set our hearts to singing!

We invite you to become our home
in the twelve months ahead,
our joy and strength.

In all the twists and turns of life 

that we cannot foresee,
be our refuge.

 

In the days to come,
bring your justice and peace into our world through our actions.

Make us mindful of the difference we can make 

as individuals -- and collectively.

Help us to love as you love, without reserve.

Please be gracious to us and bless us
so that we may also bless those you send into our lives,
especially those most in need of blessing.

Align our hearts with yours in the year ahead, 
O Lover of all,
and bless your world 

with the kind of peace that is found in love.

We exult and rejoice in your presence with us
and trust in your goodness to us.

Let your face shine on us 

and on all of your creation in this New Year,

for you are our courage and our resilience.

From the rising of the sun to its setting
and all the moments in between
we praise you,
Creator of life.

+Amen.

The Ridge Key Phoenix

One year ago today, my friend, Allie, lost her home and business to the Camp Fire at Paradise, California. Allie is a force for positivity and good in the world, a warm, loving person who draws people into her gentle and fun-loving presence like a magnet draws iron. Today, November 8th, is an emotional day for her and everyone involved with the healing and rebuilding of Paradise, as there will be different events marking a very difficult anniversary.

I spoke with Allie this morning, and she reminded me of the video she shared to her Facebook page earlier this week. I decided to share it here because Jesse Mercer's idea is inspired, brilliant, and life-giving. It's a sign of the resilience of the people of Paradise, and a reminder that art inspires healing, community, and hope. I wish I could be there this morning to see it unveiled because though the pictures are amazing, they can't really give a sense of the sculpture's size, scope and meaning. If you have the time, please watch to the end -- you'll get a better sense of what an artwork like this means.

My prayers today are for the many people of California who are climate change refugees because of so many terrible fires, and especially for those from Paradise, that they may find strength and goodness as they rebuild their lives in many different ways.

https://youtu.be/mi-M1g4fAJU

Isn't it a wonderful world...

A few years ago, when my daughters were still playing soccer, Suzanna played against a team from the most ethnically diverse part of our city. My neighbour's brother, who has spent a lot of time in India and Asia, was standing next to me when I commented on the fact that every player but one on the opposing team had black hair. He turned to me and said, "Won't it be a wonderful world when people no longer notice things like that?"

This past weekend was the American Football Superbowl, when the two top teams played for the championship trophy, and advertisers pulled out all the stops to make commercials for their products that people will remember. A certain cola company's ad (click here to see it) has received a lot of negative attention because it took a national hymn and, while lines of the song were translated and being sung in the languages of different nationalities, it showed gorgeous images of people of those nationalities participating in life in the United States.

One of the really beautiful things in our world is the diversity of its people. Our different cultures, languages, beliefs and traditions give the world such richness and beauty. For a long time, my part of North America was pretty homogeneous, but in the last twenty years, things have really shifted, and now it's unusual to go through a day without the sound of a different language or accent in my ears, spoken by someone with skin colour different than mine. Coming from a bilingual country that is becoming more multilingual by the day, I think the sights and sounds our immigrants bring from their lands of origin are exciting, appealing, and expanding the hearts and minds of long-time Canadians, most of whose families originated in other lands, too. The fact that these more recent immigrants have been brave enough to join us in the Canadian multicultural mosaic, to learn yet another language and live in a different and much colder land, this time of year(!) fills me with admiration and appreciation for their resourcefulness and resilience.

We are all brothers and sisters, and isn't it a wonderful world when we can sing the same song together, even if our languages are different?!