NOTE FROM GARETH: On New Year's Eve we gathered some of The Porch community to share stories, poetry, and songs as a way of turning back with some gratitude (and some lament) for another year; and to welcome the one we're just stepping into.
At the end of the night Brian Ammons and I shared words that had revealed themselves to us earlier that day, as we sought to discern a blessing for people living at an edge of uncertainty, sometimes concerned, often confused, and rarely sure if we can enjoy the moments of peace and beauty that make themselves felt even amidst the knowledge of suffering and a sense that the only thing we can do right now is to expect the unexpected.
I resonate with that sense, but I don't think it's the only story - and it's certainly not the only thing we can do.
This is a time, to be sure, to let go of some long-held expectations - especially the ones to do with individualistic wealth accumulation, reputation management, and personal ambition. It's a time for sharing what we have, and risking the vulnerability of asking others for friendship toward the common good. Nobody knows what this year - or this afternoon - will bring; at least in terms of the kind of events that make the news. And some such events really do matter, so of course there is a role for each of us to play in doing the most we can to nurture a safer and more compassionate world.
But even more than that, it is a time for the deepest and oldest wisdom to lead us, and be revealed more clearly. Nothing can erase a story, except a better story. The best story is the one that says we are here for a little time, and that nothing we do with our lives will matter more than how we let love embody us.
Not a sentimental love, or a superficial one.
But love defined as a willingness to stretch for the sake of the vulnerable, including our own vulnerable selves; fueled by the experience of receiving love from others and loving ourselves enough to practice the contemplation of beauty; calling forth everything good that can possibly be found in each moment, each place, each breath, each atom.
This does not have to be an ordeal, though it is a task; and it must be chosen.
There are many people who make such a choice every day. I claim the hope I see in the fact that the people of The Porch community seek to make the same choice. At the beginning of this year, those of us who help to steward the vision of The Porch offer you this blessing as an invitation to reconnect with us, and more importantly with the larger, radical, risky, scary, delicious, courageous, imaginative vision of transformative storytelling - from selfishness, scapegoating, and separation to generosity, creativity, and union.
PS: We're bringing folks together again at the Porch Gathering just over two months from now. You can join us - I believe it will be a magnificent weekend of conversation, community, and transformative storytelling that will help us find a better path, together. Info at www.theporchgathering.com
A BLESSING FOR THE NEW YEAR
As we mark the memory of this last year,
its ups and downs,
gifts and wounds,
invitations and fears,
and begin to step into another,
If part of you finds a catch in your throat —
the jagged edge of a recent story that has yet to find its resting place —
May you trust the alchemy already working deep within you.
May you give more energy to what you want to have happen than to what you are afraid of.
May you hold what’s yours,
share what’s ours, and stop trying to control what’s God’s.
May you feel the presence of old friends,
and may the desire to be impressive loosen its grip,
as you trust that being authentically you — just as imperfect, messy and beautiful as you are right now — is exactly what this world needs most.
May you trust the presence of kind strangers,
and friends you’ve not yet met,
who are lending their holy presence
to the making of this moment.
Go ahead, think of the person you love most who is furthest away…
The one you miss with a tender ache.
Imagine a string of fairy lights running between you
and that beloved,
distant soul.
Know that we just collectively wrapped the world in a soft, glowing web.
You do not have to succeed,
or at least you do not have to measure success
by the amount of money in the bank
or letters after your name.
Do the most you can to un-stranger** yourself from yourself.
That way you can better love the world.
Know that while circumstances may sometimes call you to pay a great cost,
your life’s meaning will not be measured by the loving risks you avoided,
or by how you hoarded what you were given (or what you took),
but by what you shared.
So let us resolve in 2024 to ruthlessly prioritize kissing over killing.
Let us use our power to make a safer and more compassionate world for everyone.
Let us refuse to assassinate - even with words.
Let us extravagantly eliminate trivia - the enemy of experience - from our lives.
Let us have more potlucks than polarizations,
more simplicity than selfishness,
more poetry than perfectionism.
Let us resolve to breathe more slowly and invest in friendship with all.
Forgive yourself the part of you that struggles to embrace joy,
or to be embraced by it.
Honor the fear of what may come,
but ground yourself
in the blessed gift of your body’s limitation —
insistently reminding you
that it can only exist in a single time and place.
May you love this time.
May you love this place.
May the songs we’ve sung embolden you.
May the stories we’ve shared embrace you.
And may the steady beat of your heart,
the very pulsing of your life-force,
move through and beyond you,
as we dance a new day,
a new year,
a new (and old) story,
into being.
*Inspired by AMERICAN SYMPHONY
**Thanks to Bob Hinkle
Brian Ammons is spiritual director, coach, teacher, and pastor, with a particular interest in the ways we construct stories about ourselves as we negotiate and rework our relationships to larger cultural and societal stories. www.theporchcommunity.net/coaching-spiritual-direction
Gareth Higgins is an Irish writer and storyteller learning and teaching about the power of storytelling to shape our lives and world, peace and making justice, and how to take life seriously without believing your own propaganda. www.garethhiggins.net