Though the new year is days past and many are returning to the regular things of life, my mind has been spinning about an idea I heard.
The thing is, I heard it more than once, from more than one source. The only thing that connects all the sources of this idea is that they were human souls … not lifestyle, not age, not financial wealth (or lack thereof) in common … just a heartbeat …
but … maybe that is because this idea is … primitive, coming from a common human need …
hope.
I think that maybe, in our human rush to pack Christmas away (even before it has ended) we often pack the hope that advent whispered to us in early December. As though it is not in season at any other time.
Yet, hope is always a hot commodity. It is always sought for. Always, always, always, needed.
Because, when the joys of the season pass, when the minimalistic decor that is all the trend leaves us feeling cleaned up of … everything,
we still need hope,
heaps and heaps of
the encouragement, the confidence, the acceptance,
the giggle in our bellies,
the spark in someone’s eyes,
the dream that feels like reality when we awake.
When we awake and feel …
a. l. i. v. e.
unlike ever before.
The feeling, the knowing,
that our every breath is good, and planned and meaningful.
The hope that it gets
better,
but, more than that,
that. we. are. not. alone.
So …
get a jar from your cupboard,
get a bowl from the thrift store, the department store, the designer home store,
and start writing your own news.

This year, start the with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen, throughout the year. Then, on New Years Eve, 2022, empty it and see what amazing, memorable, joyful, loving things happened this year. I think we might have a New Years filled with good memories and real hope for the future.
you in?