Echo, echo, echo…
Life is an echo
What you send out, comes back.
What you sow, you reap
What you give, you get
What you see in others exists in you
Remember, life is an echo
It always gets back to you
So give goodness!
~ Zig Ziglar
This is the year of change. I don’t say this because it is
January 1st, I say it because it is an actual fact that has been burning inside
me for a few months now. So many people wait for the New Year to make
resolutions, only not keep them and then feel the disappointment fester when
they fail. I’m not making a resolution here; I feel a life change coming around
the corner.
As I climbed into bed last night around ten, I thought of
New Years that have passed away like the fallen confetti, gone but not
forgotten. I would stand squished between friends and family around Baltimore’s
Inner Harbor waiting for the 12 o’clock firework show with a beer in my hand
and smoking weed (because with 250,000 people no one could tell where the smell
was coming from).
Then as I grew older my light show was sitting in my warm
home at the window (no alcohol or drugs), with my niece who loved to come to my
house on New Year’s Eve to spend the night and stay awake to watch the
fireworks. I lived so close to the Inner Harbor that you could hear the revelers whooping and hollering. Cars would blare horns, kids would clang pots
and pans and I just sat still with a smile watching the splendid light show.
As I made my way to Texas in later years, New Years Eve took
on a different shape and form. I never anticipated fireworks and often I was in
bed before the 12 o’clock ball drop. Not much for New Years rockin’ eve, I had
grown and matured. Life became more subdued, no longer did the bottle hold me
prisoner. I no longer felt compelled to mark my New Year with booze.
Now as I mature further as an old fuddy duddy, I don’t
understand why people, some who never drink, decide that on New Year’s Eve to
take some wine or champagne and drink to the New Year. I think conformist
follow what other people do in carrying on traditions. Since I’m not a
conformist I see no point in celebratory events to mark the flipping of a
calendar page.
I had to do some research and see why; why on earth do we
ring in a New Year. Just as I suspected, it is a celebration handed down
through other gods. It is solely based on superstition and the human race
needing to be a part of ‘the world’ follows along.
I wonder if I’m alone in not wanting to be a part of the
ritualistic and occult practices? I wonder if anyone sees nonsense in the
eating of beans for good luck, having a drink at midnight to bring on a
prosperous new year and other ritualistic traditions handed down by the Babylonians.
My dad used to eat pickled herring on New Years Eve; I used
to think clinking a bottle would give me a promise of a good year. They were
false illusions that I’ve come to realize over the years. Will my year be
hellish if I don’t participate? Will the gods curse my year of growth and
change? Are we to follow omens and the occult?
Is it just me who wants to turn the New Year into a flipping
of a page as my consuming practice on January first? I knew I was weird but I
think I’ve gone and taken it to new heights in my transcending timeline called
life. I’m different and I’m okay with that.
Like I said yesterday, my life has been and always will be
more spiritual than following rituals and traditions of the past. I like to start
my own traditions being as different as they are.
Deut. 18: 9-14 “When thou art come into the land which the
LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of
those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his
son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a
wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the
LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out
from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto
observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath
not suffered thee so to do.”
I know many people will put their spin on scripture, picking
pieces out to call truth and bend that truth to fit nicely and neatly into
their life so they feel justified in doing what they’re doing. I do the same
thing. Yes, I’m a sinner and yes I do wrong, but this is going to be the year
of change in me as I prepare my soul for my eternity. My previous years have
been based on growth. This year I learn from that growth and change. The echo I
release to the world will be one of hope and love. I will not be a part of the
negativity that so many cling to on a daily basis as their compass in life.
Have a blessed year growing with God!
