SO....It is that Monday Morning--the Monday of that twilight gloaming time between the Christian Christmas Holiday and the beginning of the Pagan calendar New Year.
This is the point of reference for us, as we stand on the brink of a New Administration, and a New Age of Youth involvement in politics, in world affairs, in world religions. I see it as a kind of "stepping off point" on that bridge we (even we non-christians) perceive as "faith" or "spirituality." Do we have the guts to walk that plank? I think we do. It is in our historically rebellious genetic makeup. Didn't our nation of rebels leave their "hearths and homes" in the old country to find something better for ourselves, for our families? What better attitude could we grow from than that? Seekers of a better way of being. So....
What will this New Year Bring?
It could, if we but choose it, bring prosperity back to our businesses. If done correctly, wisely, compassionately, it could provide jobs for those who stand on the edge of the abyss of homelessness, bankruptcy, failure. It could provide training for those displaced workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. It could...it could...it could.
So, what is the UPside of less discretionary income?
Perhaps to see it as a blessing (work with me here...) instead of a curse. You see, our gifts are not money. Our real gifts are ourselves.
We could, if we but choose it, bring family back to a tighter, more loving focus. It could mean families eating out less; and more kitchen table dinners--and breakfasts--because they're cheaper. Families cooking and washing dishes by hand to save energy (we used to sing, like a hokey 1950's musical, when we washed dishes as children. And the paycheck for having family meals together is that you have a stronger family. It could mean the family members taking on the doing of chores around the house together, instead of paying someone else to do them. Stupid things, like cleaning out gutters, waxing the car, planting and tending a vegetable garden, washing the dog in the driveway. It could mean turning off the TV (saving electricity?) and playing catch, or fetch, in the yard; sitting on the front porches of your houses, talking about "somedays," and speaking to the neighbors as they walked by. It COULD mean a stronger community altogether.
The New Year could, if we but choose it, bring peace to the world. We could choose diplomacy over war; we could choose to reach out to other nations in friendship and democracy. This may not happen as a nation, right away...but you have the option to reach out across the big waters, and help a family in Iraq, or a woman and child in Africa. You could sponsor a literacy program in your city-working with immigrant families at a local elementary school, teaching them useable, practical English, and help them settle into their new community. It could mean starting a foodbank at your local middle school. It is not just the inner cities people that need a boost (although they, too, have been hit really hard) but nation-wide help that is needed. Potluck dinners at the elementary schools would be cool...or at the libraries. That would bring us together, and weave a tighter weft to communities all over the nation. Ummmm...books, good people, and good food, is there a better combination?
The New Year can, and will, bring what you ask of it. Not the 40,000 people in your community. Just You. Just Me. Just Us. We can ask for it, we can build it. We can do immeasurable good. We just have to do it. Find out how...
Try these sites:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/for_volunteers/find_opps/index.asp
http://www.hud.gov/volunteering/index.cfm
http://www.networkforgood.org/volunteer/
It really is a wonderful way to feel. A great way to grow.
Share your gifts, you will make such a huge difference, and it will energize you. Can you help young moms learn about cooking on a budget? Can you help single parents learn to budget? Can you paint? Tutor math for 3rd graders? Can you read? Hammer nails, carve wood? Can you start a community garden? Can you introduce poetry or children's writing to 5th graders?
What are your gifts? You were given them to share with the world--not hide them, or hoard them "under a basket." Bring on your light. Whatever are your unique set of skills and gifts (and we are a strangely diverse people) get out in the world and share them.
Daily.
Blessed be,
Wilka
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Comments: 24
Blessings to you Wilka.
Lisa, yes, you are right--Oh! What a wonderful World it would be.
Jut Me...I find it easier to focus on the positive and on what is "possible" than the dreary reality we are wading through. It's a little pollyanna of me, but I'm okay with that.
EE-Bob: I'm at that "say goodbye to the old bad year" (and to quote the late-ungreat village idiot:) "Bring it on!" to the new year. We have everything to look forward to, and nothing to lose. You humble me.
Vickie: We always go that route in my household, too. We play pictionary, scruples, (and check this one out with your adult kids...) Imagine If. You will LOVE it. It's the best family game in town.
Sharon: Just so, Sharon. I come away from every single volunteer sign up more fulfilled, more enriched than I went in. It's almost like I do it for myself, instead of for others. It somehow recharges my batteries faster than anything I've ever known.
Thank you all, for your comments, and for sharing your thoughts.
Blessed be!
Wilka
Gen. Spacey 1: T'anks!
Blessings to you both, may the New Year bring, you, too...all that you wish for, and even some of the things you 'forgot...'
Wilka
Thank you Wilhelmine. You do know that I'm one of your biggest fans, right?
Blessings on both your wonderfully worthy heads. You are women that make us all proud.
Wilka
Heather! Exactly! We can do the gloom and doom thing, or we can get outside of ourselves and kick some serious economic / family / community bootay...and put our world back into a shape that we can be proud to leave as a legacy to our children.
I'm for that. Painful as hell, but, like they say, no pain, no gain. And I don't find "change" particularly painful. I guess because I never did have a whole lot to lose. I think it might pinch more had I been a little more "enriched" earlier, by life. You don't miss what you never had.
Thanks for stopping by, and I appreciate your words and thoughts today.
Blessings,
Wilka
a wonderful round robin
a"carosel of life"
(UT OH I am singing now)
and the seasons
they go round and round
and the painted ponies go up and down...
we can't return we can only look behind from where we came.....
( THE CIRCLE GAME)
Blessings in 2009
Oh, how true, Kathy! How true! This beautifully capsizes the entirety of your content, for the power it has in black and white print is unmatchable. I love, too, how you bring this situation into the arena of choice with these phrases:
We could, if we but choose it, bring family back to a tighter, more loving focus. It could mean families eating out less; and more kitchen table dinners--and breakfasts--/It COULD mean a stronger community altogether.
I have been thinking along the same lines as you. These upcoming circumstances could be the very blessing we need to realign us with what matters in life: "one another".
Thank you so much for this most inspirational ariticle.
Blessings and best wishes - S.