So, how are your New Year’s Resolutions going so far?
Well, like many of you perhaps, I have good days and bad days. I start the year with great hope and enthusiasm that inevitably gets tempered by the realities and demands of daily life. Luckily, we all get a second chance for a sincere metanoia since Lent is right around the corner! So, perhaps we can sit down with our families in the next week or so (Ash Weds is Feb. 14th) and discuss how we might live out these spiritual resolutions below in a concrete way during our sacred season of Lent.
1. I will live in the present moment. I will not obsess about the past or worry about the future.
2. I will cultivate the art of making connections. I will pay attention to how my life is intimately related to all life on the planet.
3. I will be thankful for all the blessings in my life. I will spell out my days with a grammar of gratitude.
4. I will practice hospitality in a world where too often strangers are feared, enemies are hated, and the "other" is shunned. I will welcome guests and alien ideas with graciousness.
5. I will seek liberty and justice for all. I will work for a free and a fair world.
6. I will add to the planet's fund of good will by practicing little acts of kindness, brief words of encouragement, and manifold expressions of courtesy.
7. I will cultivate the skill of deep listening. I will remember that all things in the world want to be heard, as do the many voices inside me.
8. I will practice reverence for life by seeing the sacred in, with, and under all things of the world.
9. I will give up trying to hide, deny, or escape from my imperfections. I will listen to what my shadow side has to say to me.
10. I will be willing to learn from the spiritual teachers all around me, however unlikely or unlike me they may be.
* Taken from New Year's Resolutions based on spiritual practices in the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy by Frederic & Mary Ann Brussat: www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet.
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