As Christmas passes, quite a lot of people enter a period of hibernation. The parties of Christmas begin what maybe a week of holiday taking folk onto the New Year. After all the build up and excitement of the early winter it is good to have a time to relax and unwind.
There is the familiar imagery of the New Year with the past year symbolised by an old man giving way to the coming year symbolised by a baby. The month of January itself has this double edge in its name. January is named after the Roman god Janus who had two faces one to look back and one to look forward. Janus was the god of beginning and change. But his faces would not have the sense of old and new that the old man and baby we are used to.
The image of the old man makes us think that the past is weak if not something to be put behind us and we can just embrace the delights of the new. We are led to forget that the previous year began with high hopes too.
Janus looks steadily at both the old and the new more coolly. He does not seek just to have a simple reaction to past anxieties or quick embrace of the future opportunities.
The figure of Janus was associated with doors and passageways which are places of transition. January is the gateway to the New Year and it matters what we allow in as we face the future. Often this is expressed with New Year’s resolutions. One of these that has become popular in recent years is Dry January; a month to abstain from alcohol after celebrations that had gone further than was wise.
Like many people I have my To Do Lists. It is satisfying to know what needs to be done and it is rewarding to cross them off when completed. The mark of a real enthusiast for To Do Lists is that if you complete a task not on the list you then write it on and then cross it off! However it is frustrating to find how many items have been on the list too long without completion. The regular passage of time and activities has not enabled everything to be done.
Sometimes we just need to be kind to ourselves and say our ambitions were too high and the time too short. But sometimes the tasks really need to be addressed. A cool sense of reflecting on the past is needed to work out which uncompleted tasks are which. It is from that sifting of priorities that the resolutions can be made. Then we can enter the New Year not just with wide eyed hope but that sense of having taken careful stock of the past and the future.
In all of this we also need a healthy way to live in the present. The past must not control us. Hurts and wrongs need to be put to one side. Ambitions must not drive us as if their accomplishment will solve all our troubles. We can find a way to have delight in the hour in which we live with the people and opportunities that are with us. They might be chosen, a surprise or even unwelcome. But they are to be lived with well because in reality it is only in 'now' that we live.
I write this at the end of an afternoon in mid December. I had a walk to my next engagement. It began with a heaviness. I was aware of tasks uncompleted and events to prepare for. But on that walk I chose to weigh the heaviness I felt and let go of it. I then saw the beauty of the sky, waved to some people on the seat as I passed them and enjoyed a simple gratitude for the moment and its delights.
God has given us the gift of time and he offers us his presence now as he is the Lord of past, present and future.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year,
Alan