from The Conservative Treehouse:
2022 has been another tumultuous year for most of us. I will have other thoughts on the year upon reflection. However, as the eve winds down, and as we are given to considering everything that has taken place, a revisit to the spiritual core of our association is appropriate.
For me, this year provided many memorable gifts; almost all driven by a purposeful God reminding me of my selfish insignificance. This year I watched the physical landscape where my youth unfolded, forever changed; much of it erased completely.
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The trees which once held the swings and forts for youthful triumphs, felled by nature’s fury and soon thereafter turned to mulch. Their trunks and branches likely to landscape a coming McMansion for a person with no similar attachment. And so it goes…. And so, it goes. An apropos metaphor for life, and a not subtle reminder that we are temporarily living it.
If my younger self had known a clock was counting down, perhaps the kid would have paused under the shade of the old banyans and thanked them. Then again, it really wouldn’t be childhood if we carried such weighty concerns. I am forever thankful I never carried that weight, and simultaneously today I cherish each breeze with a newfound appreciation for what I did not know.
Perhaps we have new challenges, perhaps our center is askew, perhaps our faith holds a new perspective, or perhaps our exhaustion weighs heavy as we rush turning to the next chapter…. hoping, praying for a better tomorrow.
It is easy to lose our sense of optimism. Retaining a joyful perspective while everything around us seems mad isn’t easy. However, if you accept that you can create something just a little bit better by making a choice, then you have accomplished a great deal.
Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we always have choices. A new year’s perspective:
I have long felt that life is like a series of links in a chain. You might be driving down the road and you hear a song on the radio, or see a picture, and you feel a memory….
Something triggers within you that reminds of a different time and place than where you are right now.
You reflect.
The memories you consider remind you of a totally different time in your life.
Perhaps you lived in a different place. Perhaps you were surrounded by different people. Perhaps a different job or completely different friends. You recognize those memories were constructed like frozen moments in time. They became individual links in the chain in your life.
We never actually realize, in the immediate moment, when one link closes and another link begins. But when we look back, we can clearly see distinct points where things changed, the link closed, and a new link began.
You see, the links are only visible in reflection.
As we reflect, we find parts of the chain in our life where each link closes and connects with the other. A beginning, and an end. At the point where the links are joined, we carry parts of the previous link forward to the next.
For many people those connections are bonded by family, or very strong lifelong relationships. Connections which continue beyond our geographic moments, jobs or temporary acquaintances.
But for everyone, the primary bonding agent brought forward from one link to the next is us, our center, our values and core principles. Our beliefs.
The strength of the steel which comprises the links of our life is forged in the fire of adversity, weakness, challenge, pain, loss, and painful growth. The steel is then cooled with the tears of triumph, hurdles overcome and resolve.
The forging makes the steel stronger and able to withstand the pressures that accompany the additional length. Slowly the chain becomes wiser as it lengthens. Able to reach further, form more significant benefits and become more useful.
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