a prayer for the new year...

Soon the old year will bid goodbye to our world and the new year will make it's appearance... Each year the same process happens with different people ushering in New Year's Day in varied ways... In the years that hubby and I have welcomed new adventures along with new years we have generally tried to keep things simple, especially when it comes to our celebrations and goals... We are simple people with simple needs and wants for the most part... we certainly do not wish for a grandiose lifestyle, and we learned many years ago... that most "Eve" events leave us feeling flat and wishing for our familiar ways of welcoming change...

Each year I give a fervent prayer just before the years exchange places [usually because I am headed to bed, around 10 pm... wink] My prayer is one that I am sure I am not alone in uttering... However in specific, I can say that most often I pray for peace in our world, food for hungry nations and especially children, health and well being for those I love, and quite naturally: joy for my own heart... but I also have to admit that I pray for these things, "among other things..." I have each year [as I get older] noticed that my "prayer of renewal" [for lack of a better name] gets a bit longer... and that what I pray for has less to do with me and lot more to do with those I love...

Very often my evening prayer on this night of change each year focuses on those that are in crisis, at least those that I am aware of... this focus can be for a large group or for an individual... but one thing they have in common is that most of the time the prayer I utter is about all I can do to help them... In my reality my goals are focused on doing, but my prayers are focused on feeling... At times [not always, but at times] these two focuses dovetail... and this year one specific focus of my prayers is also a focus of my goals...

The one focus I am willing to share in detail here is in humanitarian service. This year I not only express fervent prayer for the relief of suffering in the world, but one of my goals is to more actively do something about that suffering... I can't feed or cloth the whole world, but I can do a little something to help someone that is suffering... and I have laid out some specific steps as to how I will achieve this goal that I have made for 2009. All my goals for this year have been evolving for a while now and will be listed in detail, on tomorrow's page in my personal journal, but on this eve of another new year I want to commit to my own mind on this one specific thing I can do... I commit to use up the many spare resources I have in my house, in order to help those those that need help... That doesn't mean that I will give away all my food storage to others... or get rid of all the clutter I wish would leave our house of it's own accord... My commitment is simply to use up all the fabric, yarn, and other resources I kept "saving", year after year to benefit those that need warmth, now. For years I have had stores of yarn and materials in bins that I kept thinking I would "make up" in order to give aid to others... blankets, hats and/or other sources of warmth could be made out of these bins... but I procrastinated.. This year I am really going to use up those resources.

This is in addition to other specific goals of de-cluttering and cleaning I have made for myself... or whatever else I have planned for the coming year... My plan for this personal humanitarian effort does not rely on any other person's participation, it is very specific by week and month, I believe it is realistic, and I am excited about it... in fact I am so excited that I couldn't wait for the new year... I started working on this goal a few weeks ago, when I started to be reminded about how blessed we were to have been guided to prepare ourselves for tough times... As a way to express my gratitude to a Heavenly Father that opened my heart to council to prepare for emergencies and to plan for our needs to a point that we can withstand this difficult challenge we as a family have been facing the last weeks of 2008...

It has encouraged me that even feeling as tried and worn out as I have lately, I was able during December to "convert" one box of "supplies" into multiple items and donate them... knitting and crocheting doesn't take much energy... and this success has left me feeling really happy with this goal, and thinking that since I am off to such a great early start, that I will not just succeed in this goal, I will probably out distance my plan, at least this one... but like the gears of a giant clock this success connects and motivates other prayers and year end hopes, in a meaningful light and gives me greater incentive to succeed in other areas, in similar ways...

Each year I become a bigger believer in keeping to the plan... so I am determined to stay on track, working my plan and goals... to the untrained eye, it might seem like I haven't made great headway on my 2008 goals, and here were are closing the year, but I know that I succeeded at some very important goals I set... and 2009 is certainly starting off with a BANG!

So, in true Pollyanna fashion, I express glad attitude that I have the materials available to help others find some warmth... and I am really glad that the church has such a wonderful legacy of helping others that I can be a part of... Watching how the leadership of the church goes about reaching out in crisis to those in need I am reminded that I don't need to be able to feed or cloth the whole world... I just need to do what I can do and add my small offering to a much larger cause... I am also reminded that each prayer is heard and very often answered though the hands of regular, every day people...