New beginnings-

“As a new calendar year approaches, many kinds of new beginnings come with it.
They can be joyous, nostalgic, and even a bit nerve wracking, but endings and new beginnings are what life is made of.”

sermon for the Unitarian Universalists of North Idaho, December 28, 2014



Good morning!

Merry Fourth Day of Christmas, my friends!

Since we are also in the season of the New Year in at least three ways,
   Happy New Year to you all as well!

First of all, we are in the New Year on the Western Christian churches' liturgical calendar:
   The Season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas,
      is the season just past.

    It is the Season of preparation for Christmas,
       and it is the first season of the liturgical calendar.

Now we are in the second season of the liturgical calendar,
  the Season of Christmas.

This season is always exactly 12 days long - hence the 12 days of Christmas,
    from December 25 through January 5.

Since we are in the official Christmas Season on the calendars of liturgical churches,
    we are already in the new year in that sense.

Secondly we are in the season of the New Year because the new solar year in the North of our planet
  began last Sunday, with the Winter Solstice.

By now we can actually just barely begin to notice the days getting longer by a few seconds each day.

By now we can begin tell that the great wheel of the year has turned and we are heading into longer and warmer days.

As of right now, that seems like a wonderful idea,
    even though we probably won't notice much warmth for a while!

The season of the new solar year,
   just following the Winter Solstice,
         is a wonderful time for all of us who draw part of our spirituality from the world of nature!

It gives us a strong sense of our place in the cosmos.

Because of the Earth's tilt on its axis,
   we have seasons
     with different kinds of weather
       hot or cold
         wet or dry
           according to our position in relation with the sun.

Do we get more or less sunshine at this time of year?

In the northern part of our planet,
     we are getting less, but now we will start getting more and more, day by day.

In the southern part of our planet,
     they are getting more, but now they will start getting less and less, day by day.

The real reason for all of the seasons
     is the way the Earth is tilted on its axis!

We ourselves are part of the natural order of things.

The illusion that we are somehow above or apart from it
  sometimes gets us into trouble,

but the truth is...

We are ourselves products of Nature Herself
     or of the Creator of Nature,
            whichever way you prefer to express it.

As such,
  we are always profoundly affected by the events of the natural world
        and our interaction with it,
              whether we like it or not.

In this season of the new solar year, we can like it a lot,
     since with this season we observe the miracle of the change of the seasons.

I'm using the word miracle carefully here.

The great event of this season is a miracle, a wonder to all of us who know how to see.

The song, "Everthing is holy now," sings the message as clearly as anything I have ever heard.

It's not that our understanding of science has taken away the great miracles from us.

Rather, our understanding of science has enabled us to see the miracles in events that might otherwise seem commonplace.

The great event of our present season,
   the turning of the wheel,
      is not only something that we commemorate during this holy season:

It is truly taking place as we watch!

We can observe our own place in the cosmos,
  and we can stand in awe.

As we observe the days beginning to grow longer,
    we ourselves are being affected in ways we may not be fully aware of
         by the returning of the light.

The appearance that the sun is coming back to the north
   is more than an idea to call us to worship.

It is a reality of body and soul.

We can truly and deeply rejoice that we can see
  what is happening to our world:

We will not freeze in the cold and the dark.

The warmer growing season will return
      and the cycle of the year will go on.

We know this with our minds,
    but we really feel it to the depths of our emotions
          as we begin to see it happening.

So the second reason we are in the season of the new year
  is that the Winter Solstice has just come and gone
       and the new year of Mother Nature is visible all around us.

So, now to the third reason we are presently in or near a new year:

The new calendar year is about to begin.

The start of 2015 is approaching!

Thursday of this week is New Year's Day!

So saying, "Happy New Year" makes sense already
    because of all three ways we are in the New Year's season,
       but most of all because we are so close to January 1st, 2015.

Wishing each other a Happy New Year is a wonderful way of enjoying the season
   and also helping others enjoy it too.

There is a sense of shared experience of a joyous celebration in approaching the New Year.

The shared experience of celebrating together sadly seems to be getting lost around the Holy Days.

We have different Holy Days to celebrate,
  depending on the culture we have lived in.

One of my online friends grew up in a country of Western Christianity
   where Christmas is celebrated on December 25.

For reasons of work and study,
   he now lives in a country of Eastern Christianity
       where Christmas is celebrated on January 6.

He experienced some nostalgia and sadness
  because there was none of the joy and celebration
      he was used to sharing at this time.

December 25 was just a regular work day for him!

Fortunately he was able to have a small celebration with some of his friends online,
    and he took great comfort from that.

We live in a very pluralistic society.

There are people from many different cultures all around us.

There are both Eastern and Western Christians
   who simply need to understand each other
     before they start getting too upset about who says,
          "Merry Christmas" to whom, and when!

Making our seasonal greetings a bone of contention
   is really kind of sad to my way of thinking.

Nobody is trying to make war on anybody else's Holy Days,
   but those who are claiming that there is such a war
     are creating a war on politeness, it seems to me!

Whenever someone takes a moment to wish me happiness
  in any way or form,
    I'm grateful,

and it seems to me that the polite thing to say is, simply,
   "Thank you! And the same to you!"

At least, now, saying "Happy New Year," can be a safe greeting this week
   without raising too many hackles!

I haven't heard anyone speaking of a war on New Year's!

Of course, this season of new beginnings does bring up many emotions for all of us.

We think of New Years past,
     and we wonder what the New Year of 2015 will bring us.

We look back and we look forward.

We might want to remember the Roman god, Janus,
          for whom January was named.

He had two faces, one looking forward and the other looking back.

As we look back,
    we all think of the events of the past year,
      large and small.

We could call some of those events bad - or at least difficult -
     and we could call some of those events good - or at least promising.

Whether we think of good times or hard times as we think of the past year,
    we are thinking of the very things that life is made of.

As we look forward toward the coming year,
    we can anticipate more of the good times and more of the hard times.

By its very nature, life cannot simply stand still.

It may feel like it sometimes,

     whether because the times are good and we have timeless moments of wonder and joy

        or whether the times are bad and the clock seems to stand still for a while.

Yet the truth is, time does move on,
     and the experiences that happen to us within time
           are what our lives are made of.

We may as well accept that there will be some of both - good and bad -
     and move forward into the new beginning
           that the new year brings

     with a sense of anticipation and joy.

So much of our lives can be determined by what we choose to focus on.

I tend to be optimistic,
    sometimes overly so,
       and my friends have sometimes called me starry-eyed as a result.

One of the ways I manage to sustain my starry-eyed optimism
   is trying to focus on the possibilities of the future
       rather than the limitations.

Life will bring me up short often enough,
   so I don't have to try to anticipate the negative possibilities.

I find that I'm better prepared for whatever life may bring
    if I anticipate the good,
        knowing that it may not come as I hope or wish.

I try not to spend today's energy with too much worry about tomorrow.

I usually need all the energy I can get
    just trying to work my way through each day.

Why borrow trouble, as the expression goes?

Of course, I don't always succeed at focusing on the possibilities for good things!

Sometimes I worry.

Sometimes even too much.

Yet I know that worrying doesn't improve anything,
   not even my own skills for coping with the things I'm worrying about if they should come.

Looking for the negative possibilities sometimes can make them more likely,
    because our thoughts are among the most powerful forces in our lives,
        bringing a focus on the energies that tend to converge
            in creating our future.

Looking only at the good possibilities
   or worrying too much about the bad ones
       can lead us astray.

There is need for balance.

Without a shadow side, without the darkness in our lives,
    the light would be unbearably bright.

Without the light, the darkness would be unbearably empty.

I know I'm speaking metaphorically here,
   but some of the spiritual realities of our everyday lives
      are best expressed in metaphor.

Another way of approaching the balance of light and dark in our minds
   is to remember that we all have some good things and some bad things
        inside us and around us.

It's simply part of life.

We will live more fully and happily if we remember this principle.

We can keep our own thoughts in order and balance if we accept both the good and the bad.

Thoughts come and go.

Some of them have power because we hold on to them.

Some of them can just wash over us like water over a dam.

If we spend our energy thinking about the good things,
    we give greater strength to those.

At times like the New Year,
     our thoughts can be very nostalgic.

We sometimes wish for the return of better times that we can remember.

That is not a bad thought in itself,
   but the sadness that can result from concentrating on it
      can be a real downer, so to speak.

Remembering good times from the past can be an exercise in enjoying life right now.

None of the past can really be repeated,
   so we can enjoy the memories without clinging to them.

Good times are coming in the future for all of us.

I'm convinced that no matter what,
   we can find joy and well being
       in the circumstances that are ahead.

Yes, of course, there will be hard times.

There will always be challenges ahead of us.

As we look toward the new year of 2015,
    we can concentrate on the possibilities that are coming our way.

We can balance our thoughts by accepting the negative thoughts that come,
    and focusing our energies on the good possibiities that lie ahead.

It doesn't have to be hard to keep our thinking in balance.

Just noticing the direction of our thoughts can be helpful.

There is no need to fight the sad or negative thoughts when they come,
   and they will come, for all of us.

We can just let them wash over us like waves of water.

They will come and they will go.

Good thoughts will also come,
  and we can consciously focus energy on them.

Looking forward with anticipation to happy occasions that are coming
   can help us plan and get ready to have fun!

Thinking about happy occasions in the past
  can be enjoyable,
    even though nothing in the past can be exactly repeated.

Sadness is inevitable for all of us,
  since it's just a part of life,
     but we can decide to focus our attention and energy on the good things.
       
It's not so much a matter of manipulating our thinking
   as it is a conscious decision about emphasis.

We can't - and we need not -
     control the thoughts that will come and go.

But we can decide to enhance our feelings of well being
   by giving extra thought and energy to the good things we can look forward to.

We can decide to accept ourselves, with the positive and negative energies we all have inside.

While we are in this season of the New Year, we can look forward to a Happy New Year
     with all the different circumstances life will bring us.

Amen

So mote it be

Blessed Be!

and especially...

Happy New Year!