"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." ~Zora Neale Hurston

 We are now a full week into this new year. I have to admit that, for me, the last several days have been a whirlwind of activity and so this morning I sat down to reflect on what has already happened in this new year. My head is spinning with a flurry of meetings and activities that contained plans for many wonderful things scheduled over the next few months.This focus so far out into the year, all important work, has kept me from being very present to the moments that are passing right now. Moments not to be taken lightly for they will not be given to me again. 

So right now, in the quiet of this morning, this very moment, I am taking a breath and arriving. At the threshold of this new year, this new decade, I am taking a breath and simply being. It feels good. I have to admit to liking the sound of 2010 better than 2009. Perhaps it is the round numbers, the good, even numbers that instill some irrational sense of comfort and strength. Breathing in the hope and promise of what the year holds, I am taking time to honor the mystery of it. 

On New Year's Eve as we gathered in a quiet circle of friends, the full moon making an appearance outside the frosted window, I read the following poem written by Colman Barks to ring in the new year:

A child stood on his seat in a restaurant,
holding the railing of the chairback
as though to address a courtroom,
"Nobody knows what's going to happen next."
Then his turning-slide back down to his food,
relieved and proud to say the truth,
as we were to hear it.

I think I have probably shared this poem in this space before. I have to admit the words of it come to me many times during any given day, its truth always stunning me with surprise. We do not know if this will be a year that asks questions of us or if it will be a year that brings answers. Without a doubt it will bring both in small doses. But each year, I believe, does have the ability to be the one that dredges up the questions that live in our deepest, hidden places. Or the year can bring questions to us that are thrown our way by some outside force jarring us into awareness. Still others have a way of finding the smooth edges of answers that had only been just outside our reach, waiting for the perfect moment to arrive. 

A year of questions? A year of answers? Nobody knows what's going to happen next. But we have been told, 'the truth will set us free." May it be so.

Have a blessed weekend……..