It's the beginning of a new year. e. e. cummings has a poem about new beginnings which I cannot find at present. It's about partings and new beginnings and with each beginning, new meaning. We can look at the new year as a new beginning, a fresh start.
We cannot change anything that has happened up to this moment. But we do have this moment and the unfolding adventure of the rest of our lives. "New meaning" may be something we discover as we spend more time doing what is most important to us. Most folks don't spend their energy and attention doing what is most important to them. Most live their lives on automatic pilot acting out the role they were given to play on life's stage.
It was the role that was programmed in by their family, local culture and environment. The status quo of that life has it own inertia and momentum. Changing that is difficult. It can be broken but it's not easy. Unless you have a world stopping event that breaks that status quo for you: like cancer, the illness of a child or the loss of a close loved one. Then everything changes rapidly. Want to change your life? How about a near death experience or a devastating diagnosis.
See the three minute TED talk "The Gift" by Stacey Kramer for example. It may not be such a big change but one that you cannot ignore. And that change provides an opening for you to see clearly what is most important to you as well as appreciate the blessings you do have. Discovering what is most important to us and giving our lives to doing that, whatever that is, gives new meaning to our life adventure.
Without the "gift" of a world stopping event it may be more difficult to discover what is most important to you. So just pretend. Pick out something like finding out you have been given that devastating diagnosis. What would you stop doing? What would you keep doing ? And what would you change? In the process of answering those three questions you might discover what is most important to you. If not, you may still get a clue and the discovery may happen later.
Happy New Year !
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