Neighbor Tuesday: New Year resolutions
New year, New you?
Happy 2025, everyone! I hope you all had a nice holiday season and start to the new year. We started the season with a glorious Christmas Eve concert at Duke Chapel that my daughter sang in. (Isn’t this chapel incredible!)
Then, we had sickness and movie-marathons. Because of the sickness, we missed the big family meal at my parents (SAD!), but they packed up plates of food and goodies and left it on our porch. We hunkered down, watched way too many movies with way too many blankets and popcorn, and stayed inside. And, I just loved it. I didn’t like the sickness. But, I sure did love the quiet, lounge-ey, cozy, family time we all had.
Then January 1 hit and I became a new person. And, my ‘new person’ I mean ‘CLEAN OUT EVERYTHING AND THROW IT ALL AWAY OR DONATE ALL THE THINGS’. Anyone else do that at the beginning of the year? My kids and hubs love it. (Reader, please read loads of sarcasm in that last sentence.) But, I took my time, cleaned out, organized, boxed up, and donated. It was so nice to start the new year with clean closets, organized drawers, and uncluttered-ish rooms.
It made me think of how I’m entering 2025 - or how I want to enter the new year. Uncluttered, unhurried, un-all-the-things. I usually do a new word/phrase/mantra/verse of the year and I don’t know what that word is yet for 2025. But that’s ok. It will come and I’m not forcing anything.
(Fun side note: Our church gives our ‘star words’ at the beginning of the year. We pass around baskets, pick out a gold star with a word printed on it, and have our ‘word’ for the year. There’s nothing magical about the word. Our pastor reminds us that we can take it seriously or just have some fun. A few years ago, I picked the star word ‘Adopt’' and immediately looked at my hubs. The same time I mouthed “a BABY” he mouthed “a PUPPY”. So, that year was the year we got our golden-doodle, Luna. ha!) (And, please know that these pictures perfectly depict her personality. The one on the left is her wearing a banana costume. She’s magic!)
Ok, back to this year. Where was I? Oh yes, the word/mantra/verse of the year. I’ll let you know when it comes. But for now, I’m entering the year with some ease, lots of hope, and a clear mind. Maybe that’s because I decluttered my house? Or because we had a very simple Christmas? Or all in between?
I’m trying to follow that ease though and see where it leads. I know this year holds lots of anxiety for people in very real ways. My work in global health could definitely be affected, so I certainly have real fears and frustrations. But, I can feel myself not living in the worry right now. That surprises me too. It surprises me because I was full of worry and sadness a few weeks ago. And, those emotions are certainly fine. They will probably come back because we’re human.
But what happened a few weeks ago was I started neighboring intentionally. I wrote about that a few blogs ago and how neighboring changes us. It changes me.
So, the in-between of the worry-a-few-weeks-ago and the ease-hope-of-today for me wasn’t retail therapy or being angry at the world or watching way too much Netflix. It wasn’t any of the normal-numbing things we try to do when we don’t know what to do.
It was neighboring.
So, perhaps this year can be a year of neighboring. Intentional neighboring because neighboring in a world set up to do the opposite is hard to do. (That’s why I wrote a whole book about it.) So, it will take intentionality. It will also take hope. It will take some wisdom to ignore some things and speak against others. And, some joy sprinkled in because that can sustain us when nothing else will.
I hope that whatever you’re in between of today, you can find the neighboring to get you through. Either you neighboring others or you being neighbored yourself.
Maybe that’s this year? New year, new you? No, I don’t want a new me. A better me, sure. A stronger me, fine. But, a more neighborly me? There it is. There’s the ease.
2025 - The year of neighboring.
Want to join me? Come on along!
-Emily