The holidays have offered more relaxed time with the little human in my life who calls me back to childhood awe. It's pure gift.
Cole Author Riley in her book, This Here Flesh, gave me some words for it this morning. "Have you ever watched a three-year-old blow the wisps off a dandelion for the first time? Children are made of awe. We have much to learn from them, but we seldom aim to. ...The words childish and juvenile are made derogatory as we become overly concerned with the serious. It is a feigned superiority. The tragedy is that as we distance ourselves from the delight of our youth, we become increasingly prone to disillusionment. Wonder and beauty are not precise cures for disillusionment, but they can certainly stave off the despair of it. To reclaim the awe of our child-selves, to allow ourselves to be taken by the beauty of a thing, allows goodness to take up the space."
2023 certainly has held disillusionment, darkness, and devastation for so many in our world. I'm grateful for her thoughts on staving off despair. The need for awe and for Light right now - so evident. The call to be Light-carriers - so clear.
But as Nadia Bolz-Weber reminds us - our light need not be glitzy or brilliant. As we look ahead to a new year the truth that will most enflame your light is believing that you and every single other human are worthy of love. She again offers her yearly reminder that there is no resolution that, if kept, will make you more worthy of love. This year she suggests low expectations for ourselves - not out of resignation but out of generosity.
So I'm going to be generous with myself and make no resolution for 2024. Except leaning into childhood, slowing down for awe, and following the Light wherever it leads.
May the Light that has come into our world shine on your path and fill you with awe.
Ruth
