New Year Reset

 Who else was keen to see in the new year? So much happened in 2020, it seemed like a whirlwind, but I’m not sure if it went quickly or far too slowly. 

Originally the new year was celebrated around the vernal equinox, in mid-March. The early Romans calendar designated March 1st as the start of the new year. It wasn’t until 46 BC when Julius Caesar’s new solar-based calendar decreed January 1st to be the new year.

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

I saw a meme on Facebook a few days ago. about being concerned that this new year is in fact 2020 won … it does not bode well for this coming year, or people are really starting to have very low expectations. I wonder how many people are actually going to set new year resolutions or goals.

Why do we set new year goals? I mean, we can set goals at any point in the year, so why do we get so hyped up about setting them? If you know the answer to this question, please let me know because the average person who decides to do something in the new year will usually abandon it two weeks later. If you’re someone like me who has writing plans this year, how do we prevent ourselves from stumbling into the life of the average person and have nothing to show for it come New Year’s Eve?

I know some people, including myself who reflect on the year gone before they go about looking at the new year ahead.

• What did you accomplish, no matter how small?

• What lessons did you learn?

• What skills or knowledge did you acquire?

• Your happiest moment?

• Your saddest moment?

Each year I’ve answered these questions and then set a whole bunch of goals for the new year. Sadly, I’m an average, new year, goal-setter. Most of the things I decide I’m going to do never pan out and by the end of the year I may be lucky enough to have completed one out of the dozen goals I set for myself (it’s usually the easiest one). This year, I’m going to try something different. I am going to set four goals for the year. A goal for my mind. A goal for my body. A goal for my spirit. And a goal for my writing.

They are simple.

• To take a moment for myself each day - read a book, watch the sunrise, paint my nails. Something just for me.

• To be more careful about what I eat - gluten free, dairy free.

• To dive deeper into the word of God - study a book or passages each month.

• To have fun writing - write for the pure pleasure of writing and not be bogged down with the pressures or stress of editing or publishing or that perfect sentence. To remember why I started writing.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

What about you? What are your goals for this year? If you’re like me, post your goals below in the comments or on the CWD Facebook page and we can all keep each other accountable for the year ahead.

K.A. Hart is a born and bred Territorian who moved to Queensland and had no choice but to stay after her assimilation into Toowoomba's infamous, collective known as Quirky Quills.

Since then, K.A. Hart has had two short stories published. Stone Bearer, appears in Glimpses of Light and Tedious Tresses, in the As Time Goes By Mixed Blessings anthology. She is currently working on a fantasy novel.

Beyond our imagination and aspirations

I usually spend most of January tying up loose ends from the year that’s past, and preparing for the year ahead. I try to include a few days away from the domestic daily routine, the phone and other intrusions, so that I feel rested when February starts. By then I have my diary for the new year sorted.  I’ve scheduled and planned for various events, social and family functions, speaking engagements, projects, trips away. I have some personal goals for the year, including what I want to accomplish in my writing and what areas of spiritual growth I need to focus on.

(I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes order, who plans, sets new year resolutions and goals, so I’m assuming at least some of you are identifying with this.)

However, with the arrival of February this year, and much of the above set out as usual, I still found myself still carrying a heaviness from some losses and struggles from last year. I’ve been wondering if I’m really ready for 2014, despite my planning. As I’ve reflected on this, God has graciously reminded me of what I most need.

A few years ago I was greatly impacted by the wonder of new life after darkness and devastation. It was during January of 2001 that I visited our church conference and camping site after fires had swept through and ravaged the buildings and grounds. I was so struck by the sight of new growth that I took a roll of film – bright green shoots of grasses and shrubs, pink leaves from the blackness of charred trees – all wondrous signs of what God brings from death and destruction, yes, even in plant life. His wonderful creation. His marvellous power. There for me to be overwhelmed by. I remember that year I began February with a sense of awe and expectation, assured that whatever had been or was to come, God would be doing something beautiful. 

This January I’ve been reading daily messages from one of my favourite writers, Richard Rohr, and just this last week his focus has been on God’s divine plan for our lives; the ongoing transformation He wants to bring about in us by His Spirit, until we are formed into His likeness, until we reach perfect oneness with Him. This won’t be complete, of course, until we are in heaven with Him, but it is the divine reality which is going on in our lives even now.

The following is taken from one of Richard Rohr’s daily readings. It’s a prayer offered by one of his colleagues at the Living School for Action and Contemplation:

May each of us be so fortunate as to be overtaken by God in the midst of little things. May we each be so blessed as to be finished off by God, swooping down from above or welling up from beneath, to extinguish the illusion of separateness that perpetuates our fears. May we, in having our illusory, separate self slain by God, be born into a new and true awareness of who we really are: one with God forever. May we continue on in this true awareness, seeing in each and every little thing we see the fullness of God’s presence in our lives. May we also be someone in whose presence others are better able to recognize God’s presence in their lives, so that they, too, might know the freedom of the children of God.

These reminders have swept through my heaviness and lifted me to a place where I can surrender all my plans, goals, aspirations and struggles to Him who knows it all and has plans for my year which are above and beyond anything I can conceive or even imagine, and who also has a much bigger plan for His whole creation, which is so much greater than anything that happens in our daily lives on earth. This is a much better perspective for me to go into 2014 with.  I hope any of you who are finding it difficult to get into the work of this year, will find this encouraging.
Carol Preston

Carol writes historical novels based on her family ancestry in Australia and include the Turning the Tide series; Mary’s Guardian, Charlotte’s Angel, Tangled Secrets and Truly Free. Her earlier novel Suzannah’s Gold has been re-released by EBP and will soon be followed by the re-release of its sequel Rebecca’s Dream. You can see more about Carol and her novels on her website or her FB author page.

www.carolpreston.com.au 

 www.facebook.com/writingtoreach

Her novels can be found at EBP  www.evenbeforepublishing.com

Or Amazon  www.amazon.com/author/carolpreston