So when does the new year officially get going? Is it the minute that ball drops in Times Square? Or is it when the first baby of 2012 is born?
In our house, the holiday season ends when the left-overs are gone, the Christmas tree is taken down, and, the last college bowl game is played. Even though the relatives have gone home and both high school and college have cranked back up, it doesn’t feel like a new year until that 35th and final bowl game is completed. Then we can turn and face the new year. Cause we just can’t wait for the Superbowl, (now in February), to get closure on 2011.
So this year the new year starts on January 9th. By then the dust from the collapse of 2011 should have mostly cleared. Then we can squint toward the far horizon of 2012 and start to fill in important dates we already know are coming down the pike.
So we have ‘til Monday to really get serious about 2012. You can avoid it until about half-time of the LSU-Alabama Game tomorrow night. When the final seconds of that game tick off, there will be no more residue from college football 2011. The mixing and matching of one season over two calendar years will be over and we can focus on the future without the past weighing us down.
As our Zen Buddhist masters teach us, “The past is perfect.” It cannot be altered or perfected any more. It just is. Though 2011 can still effect us, we can no longer effect it. So it is time to put the past behind us and move on. We cannot grab hold of the future until we let go of the past. I don’t know about you, but I always need God’s help with that one.
“God, please help us to let go of 2011, so we can live fully in the present in 2012!”
Grace & Peace,
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