Life and Death | New Year’s Eve 2020
by Elouise
Words flow like honey
Filled with sharp barbs
Invisible and relentless
Each birth
Each birthday
Each anniversary
Each retirement whether
Planned or not
Each debilitating accident
Each political chess game
You didn’t see coming
Plus Colvid-19 and who’s
Who in the Electoral College Zoo
Grace and glory mixed with
Wormwood and gall
Invite us into the reality of death
Not once in this precarious life
But over and over one day
Following another like a bad
Or good dream depending on
How the ball bounces or
Where it lands on the roulette wheel
Or where we place our trust
As the end precedes the beginning
One day at a time inviting our
Attention not to things that
Dissipate inevitable sorrow
But to sweet gifts of life
Small and almost invisible
Accompanying us into
Each new day and
This new year
Most of my life I’ve assumed New Year Day was the beginning of another great adventure. This year I’m taking it as an invitation not to ignore my coming death. Not because I’m “old” but because I’ve never known when my last breath would leave my body.
Add to that the shape of things today. Not just Covid-19, but streaming refugees, loss of trust between the USA and former allies, the nightmare-like nature of post-Election 2020 claims, grossly inadequate attention to issues related to race, ethnicity, local economies, and growing wealth among those who need it least.
What does this mean? I’ve lived most of my adult life by daily lists. To-do lists. The kind that invite a feeling of despair because they’re never finished. Never.
During the last few weeks I’ve focused on four things that bring me joy: blogging, music, writing poetry, and walking with D. I can’t attend to all of them every day. Still, any one of them is, for me, a way of acknowledging life is short. I don’t have time to waste by avoiding them. Besides, avoiding what I most love won’t bring me joy I could be having right now.
Praying you’ll find your way into joy and alert peace this coming year. This life isn’t over until it’s over.
Elouise♥
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 31 December 2020
Image found at travelmanitoba.com
Telling the Truth 
Thank you, Elouise!
Prayers for a New Year of peace, joy, love, good health, laughter… 🙂
Happy New Year (((HUGS)))
🎆 🎇 🥳 🎆 🎇
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Thank you, Carolyn! And the same to you! What a wonderful collection of tiny joyful emoji pix! 🙂
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Very nice post and wise thoughts, Elouise. May we all have a blessed 2021.
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Thank you, Don! I couldn’t agree more–Here’s to a blessed New Year for all of us!
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❤
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Thanks for the New Year’s Eve valentine! 🙂
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Thank you for helping us pay attention to things that matter. May you have much joy in 2021, much time to blog, do music, write poetry, and walk with D. Grace and peace to you…
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What a kind comment. Thank you, dw. Blessings galore to you in this new year, along with grace and peace every day and every night.
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Happy new year! I hope you have a happy and healthy 2021. Take care.
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Thank you, Herminia! The same right back to you!!! 🙂
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I don’t consider myself “old” either, but I told my wife today that it’s no longer just years going by, but decades. 🙂
“Add to that the shape of things today. Not just Covid-19, but streaming refugees, loss of trust between the USA and former allies, the nightmare-like nature of post-Election 2020 claims, grossly inadequate attention to issues related to race, ethnicity, local economies, and growing wealth among those who need it least.”
It was a few years ago that I mostly disconnected myself from the “news” or what passes for it, and from the political scene as well. This decision turned out to be the best thing I’ve done for my mental and spiritual health in a long, long time. I need to answer for what I consume. Paul’s exhortation is to dwell on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, etc.
I’ve concluded the job of the news media and politicians is to stir up feelings of anxiety, discontent, and anger through “words flowing like honey, but filled with sharp barbs”…(great writing). Politicians and the news media are experts in delivering discontent in lovely and irresistible packaging. They make it easy for their consumers to forget that they do this to increase their own wealth and power – at our expense.
Christians are a diverse group of people with vastly different political views on our *government’s* handling of refugees, the poor, justice, wealth redistribution, etc… I found that I was obsessing over the government’s response or lack of response concerning my favorite political issues; but I should’ve been obsessing over my own Christian response to these issues.
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Thank you, Matt, for another thoughtful response. Daily and hourly news updates, constant ads for ways of distracting ourselves, etc. etc. All of it, whether intended or not, distracts from our immediate surroundings and situations. Put another way, we seem to have forgotten how to number our days (we’re dying a bit each day). We also seem to have forgotten how to enjoy (as a blessing, not a distraction) the small gifts of each day. It’s a tightrope, isn’t it? We’re responsible for our votes and our associated actions that affect the rest of our communities and world, and we’re responsible for what we do with the time and bodies we’ve been given.
I also wonder what we’re not looking at right now. All the way from our own family backgrounds and issues, to our habit of treating some people as others who somehow threaten us. Covid-19 has, in a totally unexpected way, laid bare issues we’ve tried to ignore consciously and unconsciously. Ignoring them isn’t an option. Finding a way to change ourselves and the way we live our lives isn’t an option, either. Yes, it’s all too easy to take cues from our preferred news feeds (whether true or false), our friends (with whom we feel safe), or our own need to feel we’re in control when we’re not.
And just a final comment on moving from counting years to counting decades. It’s a great idea! I’m adopting it forthwith!!! 🙂
Elouise
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Elouise – thank you for your lovely response. I agree that we have forgotten to number our days. Ephesians 5:16 (KJV) says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” I love that – redeeming the time…
It’s easy to point fingers and rail against our neighbors – things would be better if everybody believed and voted like me.
What a boring world this would be if it were so…
With just a little effort, loving effort, we can find blessings in our differences. Unfortunately, it’s easier to allow lesser things to distract us than to invest in each other lovingly.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” Luke 6:32
Happy New Year and I look forward to your posts in 2021. Your posts make me think. You offer, from my perspective, a unique Christian voice in this vast wasteland we call the internet. May you have many decades ahead… 🙂
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Thank you, Matt! You say it so well. Investing in each other — a wonderful image and goal for 2021. I pray we’ll learn to do more of that in the new year and, with that, learn to let others invest in us. As for having many decades ahead….? 🙂
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