Tiny Thoughts in the New Year

January is almost my favorite month of the year. It doesn’t have October’s bright leaves or brisk weather – up here in Maine January is dark, bitterly cold, and often exhausting. But January is the month of potential. It’s the month that looks toward a whole, new year with hope and anticipation.

I make resolutions each year, but on January first, I ease into them, instead of leaping. My resolutions start with a word for the year – this year it’s Reclaim. I spend January getting to know my word – and my goals – in as thoughtful a way as I can. Now, reclaim applies to all areas of my life, from health to hearth; spiritually though, it has some aspects that might nourish those of us coming down off the exhausting stretch of uncertainty and antagonism of the past few years.

Reclaiming

When I think of reclaiming aspects of myself and my faith that have languished recently, I’m looking for inspiration in my past self, in the saints who have been a consistent part of my life, and in books or devotions that once-upon-a-time changed my relationship with Christ. If you’re hoping to reclaim a gentler, kinder, wiser, more loving version of yourself, start by looking back at a time in your life you’re proud of.

Don’t go searching for the perfect you (remember, there has never been a perfect version of you – or me – we’re all works in progress). Look for good seasons and reclaim the vision, energy, or devotion that helped you get to that season. For me, it’s the year my grandmother died. Something about that woman has always loomed large in my imagination. When she died, her statues, relics, rosaries, and worn-out holy cards came to me, the “spiritual” one in the family.

Unfortunately, my “spirituality” was a messy blend of folk Catholicism and witchcraft. The boxes of hope came trundling into my dark, little room and made Satan decidedly uncomfortable. I could hear my grandmother’s disapproval as her saints glowered at me from the dresser. With her help, I quickly transitioned from witchy Catholic to the honest pursuit of holiness.

That pursuit has been an up and down journey. But when I look back on that time, I see so much to reclaim in it. This year, in 2022, I’m seeing myself in the Apocalypse of St. John: “You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” (Revelation 2:4–5).

Reclaim Spiritual Joy

With everything happening in the world around us, it’s been a challenge to hold on to the peace and joy of Christ. For me, I’d like to build a year in which I’m able to continually embrace the joy and peace that the Holy Spirit offers to each of us.

The best way for me to do this – and, I think the best way for most of us – is to reduce the amount of time I spend consuming. Whether its news, cheap junk from Amazon, excess food, or just the distractions the internet pours out on us – consumption deadens the soul and pulls my mind away from reality.

Reality, Christ Himself, is asking for my devotion. He doesn’t care if I’ve liked, posted, purchased, eaten, or injected anything – in fact, the more I focus on those things, the less focus I have to offer Him. The push to consume more and more has been a huge problem in 2020 and 2021. We’re told to keep abreast of the news, buy up dairy, toilet paper, and eggs before they’re gone from the shelves again, and watch all the new trends on social media. In part, we’re consuming because we’re unbearably lonely. When I encourage friends to get off social media, their number one reason for staying on it is the feeling of connection. But social media can only offer the feeling of connection, it can’t truly connect us.

We need real community – not the false, easy-to-purchase imitations advertised everywhere around us. If you want to reclaim the joy of Christ, put down your phone (or toss it out the window), turn off the TV, and embrace a life (a month, a week, a day even) of media silence. Christ is there in the silence, waiting for you.

Reclaiming Kindness

Recently, my sister who (like me) avoids social media, asked me if the people I knew were angry and polarized. We both decided it must be more of an online problem. In my day-to-day life, I rarely meet with angry, aggressively opinionated people.

It’s not that I’m careful to not offend. I tend to be direct, full of unpopular opinions, and cheerfully confident in my own conclusions. My sister is, if anything, even more opinionated. This year, I’m taking some time to explore why we’ve been able to avoid the relationship fracturing of the past few years.

Last summer, my siblings and I converged on our childhood home to support my mother in her battle with cancer. We were Catholics and atheists, married and single, vaccinated and unvaccinated, liberal and conservative. We bickered about tacos and hobbies, dating mistakes and past slights – as siblings do. We didn’t fight, polarize, or intentionally antagonize “the other side.” It was incredibly healing for my parents, delightful for our own children, and a much-needed reminder that no matter how divided we may be ideologically – “love never fails.”

In this deeply divided world, the reminder is essential. Reclaiming the peace and joy of the Gospel requires me to see Christ in everyone – to love them and treat them with kindness. Not a weak, conciliatory niceness, but the kindness of Christ. Firm in my beliefs, firm in a desire to invite them to believe with me, and firm in recognition of their own ability to be the image of Christ to me.

A Year of New Life

Christ tells us that unless we “become as little children,” we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). This year, I’m reclaiming my youthful intensity and spiritual abundancy. Rediscovering joy and kindness opens the door to becoming a child in Christ. For those of us who have spent the past few years far from the Sacraments and devotional life of the Church, “becoming like little children” gives us the opportunity to run enthusiastically back into the parish building, confess our sins, and become a part of life again.

Those are ways I’m working to reclaim the richness of my spiritual life in 2022. If you’re still uncertain or unmotivated in the New Year remember – January is just the beginning. We’re stepping into an unexplored season of life – let’s make it a beautiful one.