2011…I really did look at the clock at 11.11 on the 01.01.11

How do you celebrate? Out with the old whilst taking the good with you…First footing…Coal…Banging drums…Fireworks….Praying…Sleeping?

For many years we have celebrated with our friends the Turners and alongside frivolity we write our goals and dreams for the coming year, reflecting on the year gone by and checking in on last years goals. With them in Brisbane and us in Canada this year they were done by email. We are so looking forward to adding to them when they visit in March. We call them goals and dreams rather than resolutions – it takes the pressure of.

Often they are simple such as Blog weekly – Have a regular date night – Read 2 books a month. Others are daring – Achieve the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim – Have a Baby – Run a new Marathon….or even… Emigrate

Crazy ideas? Unfeasible projects? “Surely, you cannot do it”…

Here is an anecdote from the life of Henry Ford, the king of automobiles. At the start of his career he sought a loan from a bank in the US. The answer of the banker was both disappointing and a self fulfilling prophecy:

“Mr. Ford, think that if your business plan became a reality, there would be automobiles in such numbers that our dear old gravel roads would not hold them. You would have to put some hard substance on them. In addition, you would have to put up some kind of fueling stations, possibly all over the country. Think what that would look like? And how would you get fuel to them? By train? Another thing that comes to mind is that we have to prevent fools from getting automobiles, perhaps by some kind of license. Otherwise there will be accidents. As if that was not enough, some kind of signaling system has to be put in, at least in thickly settled areas, so that people don’t run into each other. You must understand yourself that I am describing a society so absurd that even you can’t believe in it. Our bank, in any case, cannot contribute to such fantasies.”

The internet suggests hundreds of New Year thoughts, I like these:

 

*Enjoy the simple things

*Laugh often, long and loud, until it hurts

*Be ALIVE while you are alive

*Cherish your health

*Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity

*Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully

*Memorize your favorite poem

*When you say “I’m sorry”, look the person in the eye

*Never laugh at anyone’s dreams

*Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk

*When you lose – don’t lose the lesson

*Smile when picking up the phone – the caller will hear it in your voice

*Spend some time alone and remember that silence is sometimes the best answer

*Trust in God but lock your car

*A loving atmosphere in your home is so important

*Read between the lines

*Once a year go someplace you’ve never been before

*Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes the blessing

*Approach cooking with reckless abandon

and

*Most importantly Pray. There’s immeasurable power in it.

 

 

For me. My dream, my goal, my aspiration this year is to absorb and live the prayer of St. Francis.

 

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;

that where there is hatred, I may bring love;

that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;

that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;

that where there is error, I may bring truth;

that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;

that where there is despair, I may bring hope;

that where there are shadows, I may bring light;

that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;

to understand, than to be understood;

to love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.