Listening for the New Year

I love the new year. There is something so satisfying about turning the calendar over and finding that another year has passed; a new year is about to begin.

It’s around this time that I like to pick a word for the new year. The word becomes my talisman, my guiding principle.

This year, my word for the year got presented to me like a gift.

My sister and I went out for lunch right before Christmas. While we were there, a party of nine people came in. They were a varied group, all in their early sixties. Included in the group was a woman who was blind. I noticed her immediately not because she was blind, but because she had the most beautiful smile and wore it constantly.

One thing led to another, and before you know it my sister and I were sharing stories with this happy group of people. For over 25 years, they have been gathering in the same place to celebrate each other’s friendship and share holiday cheer.

As we were all talking, the blind woman asked if my sister and I would like an angel word.
She had a bag of words she had brought with her. Each of her friends had drawn a word, and she wanted to give us a turn.

My sister pulled out the world “perseverance,” which I loved. When it was my turn, I put my hand in and pulled out

Grace.

And the blind woman wrapped her hands in mine and said, “Grace, that will be your word for the year. I believe it.”

I wrote about Grace in April. It was a time when I felt stuck, where things weren’t going my way and I wanted something better.  It took a while, but I came to understand that living with Grace gives you the power to just let life be. So, instead of asking what I did wrong, I asked  “What is this experience teaching me?”

 I wrote:

"So the job that isn’t fulfilling is asking something of you. And the friendship that feels unsatisfying is asking something of you. And the feeling of accomplishment over mastering a new task is asking something of you. All of life, all of our experiences, all of our relationships are asking something of us. And when we live with Grace, we live into the answers that get presented from simply living our lives."

Living with Grace let’s you live life in a more open way. You can let the things that go wrong go wrong and not obsess about how being smarter/more organized/nicer/prettier/wealthier would have prevented those things from happening. Things happen, and what you need to do is simply ask, “What is this teaching me?”

But here’s the tricky part: You need to be listing for the lessons that get presented. Living life with  Grace opens you up to new lessons, new experiences. But if you’re rushing through life - working, parenting, checking your iPhone, looking at Facebook updates, trolling for the latest news - the powerful lessons that Grace has been trying to get you to understand can pass you by.

So that is my hope for the new year. That I have the wisdom to live a life full of Grace and the stillness to know when I’ve found it.

I like my chances for success. After all, when I beautiful, wise, smiling woman holds your hand and tells you that Grace belongs to you, it has to be true.