Newsletter January 2024 - A New Years Pondering

Dear Friend
 
New Year’s greetings to you.
 
I wonder how your 2023 ended? How you celebrated? How you reflected?
 
Don’t you find that we are so often in a rush to focus on what’s to come, without perhaps giving valid attention to the year that’s passed, what has been or what in fact, still is?
 
In the days before the end of the year I sat with a friend and we asked each other to score our year out of 10.  I gave a cautious 7.5, as with a flippant look back at the year I thought 2023 had been a bit of a ‘meh’ year. Not bad but nothing wow. ‘Meh’. Immediately however I thought, what would it really have taken in a year to award those additional 2.5 points?  I upgraded the year to an 8.  In the unfolding days I decided to take some more time to reflect on the year, noting the highlights (and lowlights) I remembered, reviewing my agenda and photos for all those I had already forgotten.  I was left with a humbling and gratifying list that made me think "what more could I really ask for in such a short period of time?". All this is 52 weeks! The score got upgraded again.
 
Looking ahead to 2024 there is much I’d like to achieve. I found the following themes helpful to guide me in my year planning - personal themes and values; work; learning; family and friends; movement and exercise; travel and events; spiritual practice.
 
So, there I was feeling all proud and organised for the year ahead and as I gazed out of the window at yet another dark and rainy day a question arose, “is now the time of year to really be doing this?”.  It's winter (at least here in the northern hemisphere). It's dark, the days are short, it's cold and wet.  Is this the time of year when we should be forced to start all these energetic plans? Or is it moreover the time of year when we should be slowing down, as do the trees, the plants, the animals? Slowing down, resting, sitting by a fire, reading, making a stew. Hmmmmmm. Yes, we probably have to still work and to support ourselves and families. Yes, it's still good to create and grow. But just because a calendar says it’s a new year, does this fixed construct work for us in terms of doing and not-doing? Would it perhaps be more effective to wait until spring with all these new ideas and plans and, as the world emerges from its winter slumber, so can we, with light, with warmth and with energy to begin the things we want to do?  I don’t have the answers, I’m just pondering. Pondering whether we would be better off to determine our own cycles. Perhaps cycles more based on the natural wisdom that surrounds us. So just as the land rests, so we rest. And when, in time, the leaves and flowers burst forth so too can we.