Opening the Year – That’s Why It’s Called the Present.

Happy New Year Dear Reader,

A week ago today at this time I was waiting for my Daughter to awaken so we could open our presents to each other.  That was last year.  It is in the past.  I still feel the waves of joy rippling through me as I watched each of my children and grandchildren open their gifts. 

Alas, I have already heard the sighs and moans of returning to normal.  I have already heard the joy and mirth being dis

missed by those who see the day in and day out of life as a grind.  I cannot approach the world this way.

My favorite way to articulate this since 2008 has been through the instruction given in Kung Fu Panda.  “Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift; that’s why it’s called the present.”  Each morning that I awaken is a gift from God.  It is my privilege to give it back to him one moment at a time.

I plan and God guides so that I do not get lost in my plans.  I try to pull on the tethers to the past and God gently turns my head back toward the path in front of me.  Today I open a year, a month, and a day.  What I forget is that I am also opening hours, minutes, and moments.  Every one of them is a gift from God for me to use as I will.

Living in the moment must be an eternal exercise in not looking for more in the future.  It must be seeing that the tethers to the past are guides and not puppet strings.  I need to give each moment back to God by assuring that I look for him in it.  I cannot stress this enough. 

In the last two weeks some very painful and dangerous places in my heart have been stirred to a fearful contentious wakefulness.  My thoughts try to push me to think more of the past and the future that the moment.  If I do this I will fail so miserably in living in the moments and that is the only place where my hope and faith work.

So as I open the gift from God that is a new year I pray that he keeps pointing me back to the moment.  I hope that he does not lose patience with my constant looking back or ahead in unhealthy ways.  Perhaps he will be merciful and make my looking back in the wrong way cause me to see things in the right way.  Perhaps as I look to the future I will only see what is good for me to see and try to over think what comes next.

Just like Christmas day with my Grandsons, I want to be so caught up in each gift that I open that I forget that there are others waiting for me to open.  I want each moment to be so filled with the presence of Christ that those around me are anxious for me to open the next one but I am content with the moment until it passes naturally.

Magic Every Moment – Dan Fogelberg

I awoke this morning to a shattering sound

And I went downstairs and found these shards of glass strewn all around

There upon the floor I found this poor broken dove

And it made me realize how very fragile is this life that we so love

I came back up to bed and I held you so tight

And I prayed up to the Father, oh I prayed with all my might

That He'd always keep you with me, that He'd always keep you safe

And when I went downstairs I found that dove had somehow up and flown away

There's a magic every moment

There's a miracles each day

There's a magic every moment

Oh won't you let the music play

Oh won't you let the music play

On a high and windy island I was gazing out to sea

When a long forgotten feeling came and took control of me

It was then the clouds burst open and the sun came pouring through

When it hit those dancing waters in an instant all eternity I knew

There's so much we take for granted--there's so much we never say

We get caught up in the motion of just a living day to day

We are fettered to the future; we are prisoners of the past

And we never seem to notice 'til our lives have finally

Slipped right through our grasp

There's a magic every moment

There's a miracles each day

There's a magic every moment

Oh won't you let the music play

Oh won't you let the music play

You can see forever in a single drop of dew

You can see that same forever if you look down deep inside of you

There's a spark of the creator in every living thing

He respects me when I work but He so loves me when I sing

There's a magic every moment

There's a miracles each day

There's a magic every moment

Oh won't you let the music play

Oh won't you let the music play

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store." 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)