Lord, on this new day of the New Year I am thankful perhaps most that last year is over and a new page has been turned. I know the moment that marks a new year is in reality no different from any other moment. Each moment gives me a chance to make a better choice, take a bigger risk, avoid a careless word, and embrace a glorious joy.
But sometimes we need a sacrament--a party, an event, a mark on the national calendar--to shake us from our routine. We need a landmark, a finish line, a line in the dust that says, "Here. Here is the place to begin.
So, I am thankful for this moment. This New Year's Day is a closure to pain, an opening to joy, a celebration of past victories, a funeral for past failures, an open door to exciting and terrifying possibilities, a back-turning on all that would drag us downward. This is a moment. I choose to love it. I will do the hard thing today. I will speak the truth today. I will forgive and offer grace today. I will receive forgiveness and give it today. I will not be cynical today.
I will laugh freely like a child at what I see, at myself, at the sheer loveliness of life. Today I ask for no burning bushes or eruptions of Sinai. I do ask for the eyes to see the bushes already aflame with awesome frozen beauty glistening like diamonds in the air.
I ask for ears to hear the voice of God in the thunder. I ask for the sensitivity to feel the pulse of the universe when I press my breast against the warm sand on the beach. May I taste the honey on the purple roadside clover and the sweet tender end of the stems of native grasses.
May I thrill to the gentle touch of snow landing on my cheek, laugh when my nostrils send smoke rings of steam into the morning air. Today may be as hard as yesterday, but make me a new woman in the living of it. Tomorrow may be as glorious as my best memory. Make me a new woman to celebrate it. Thank You. That's all I have to pray. Thank You.
