The holidays have come and gone. Today most all of us are returning to our usual obligations and routines. Welcome back to reality. Maybe like me, you felt more than ready to say goodbye to 2016. Now a new year spreads out in front of us, fresh and new and full of possibility like that perfectly smooth bank of freshly fallen snow just begging for footprints or sled tracks or a giant belly flop of a snow angel.
I appreciate the reflection the changing year invites. I’m grateful for the opportunity to open myself up to resolutions, goals, and change. Whether the potential of all that can soon happen feels exciting, intimidating, or a squirrelly mix of both, I take encouragement from knowing that we come to earth to be changed and shaped by our mortality. If you feel stuck in a rut or trapped or held back take courage from knowing our world is a place devoted to change. We worship a Creator whose creations are designed to grow, adapt, and progress. As Marcus Aurelius said, change is nature’s delight.
Photo by Belle Deesse
John Muir observed:
“Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another. (1899)
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Here in the Northern Hemisphere it is the darkest and coldest time of the year, but every day gains a little more light. So follow the seasons and let your small efforts brighten and warm your life and bring about great change.
As Alma reminds us:
“Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls. (37:6-7)
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-KateMC