Happy Sacred Sunday!
It’s hard to believe I am writing to you an entire week into 2024. The last 7 days have been a blur.
December felt momentous and energetic as we got ready to close out the year. The Different December theme I chose inspired a playful, carefree approach to the month that was contagious. My family was excited about our upcoming travels and welcoming the new year with “umph.”
Newton’s first law of motion states that an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Have you ever felt like your life is in motion with a certain speed and direction and suddenly an unbalanced force interrupts it?
Sometimes you can identify the force, but sometimes the force is invisible.
In our case, the unbalanced force appears to have been the flu. Cold symptoms, headaches, fevers, and vomiting overtook our five fingers and each family member fell one by one like lined-up dominoes.
December haphazardly rolled into January and the days passed one by one with no regard to our circumstances. Even though each of us got sick (and recovered) at different times throughout the week, the illnesses, coupled with a lack of routine, kept us cocooned in a gloomy vortex of yuckiness.
Ryan Holiday often refers to life as alive time versus dead time. I did my best to avoid dead time despite the situation. I took down Christmas decorations, did laundry, put away all the winter clothes, and restored the house back to simplicity. I also made home-made chicken soup, went for walks, and started a puzzle.
But despite the efforts, the collective energy of our family felt more like dead time than alive time.
By yesterday, we just had to get out of the house. I forced myself to the gym in the morning, which my brain tried endlessly to talk me out of. Then we took the boys to get haircuts and headed to an outdoor shopping area we love called The Falls. As we roamed around aimlessly, we talked about what a confusing, weird, and sad week it had been.
The premise was that the start of the new year was a fail.
And then it hit me.
We were experiencing exactly what I wrote about last week. You’re in the sprinter’s position, the gun goes off, but you miss the race. The year feels like an epic fail before it even began.
That is not at all how I want to approach my year. or my life.
CAN WE HAVE A DO-OVER?
I looked over at my husband and made a suggestion; “What if we make today New Year’s Eve? What if we start 2024 over again?”
Everyone loved the idea.
The thing about do-overs is that you can’t reverse the clock and get the time back. The days will pass whether you’re sick or well, intentional or mindless, on vacation or working.
But the do-over is the symbolic representation of choosing to become the force that changes the speed and direction of your life. It’s the decision to take control of that which is within your control. And it’s the letting go of the things that are not serving you well or keeping you stuck.
If you are the author of your life and you write your own story, then you can decide to start a new chapter anytime.
Last night we made a lovely dinner, bought 2024 balloons and Happy New Year party hats. We fought to stay awake until midnight even though we were falling asleep by 10:30pm, and we toasted to a new year with sparkling cider and a lot of love.
There were no fireworks or big party.
Just a family of five deciding that January 6th was the perfect night to reclaim their alive time.
And that is the beauty of life — so long as you’re alive — any day is a great day for new beginnings.
So whether your new year kicked off with a bang last week or you inadvertently slipped into it like we did, on this Sacred Sunday I offer to you this New Year’s wish:
May this year be momentous, inspirational, and full of alive time and may you never be afraid to start over when you need to.
