A new year to be hopeful and to call forth our best selves

Dear Readers,

It has been a difficult week for me following the death of my husband on Dec. 27.

Words of comfort and peace have overflowed into my inbox, and for that, I am grateful.

I thought it might help you, as it helps me, to lean on the wisdom of others.

I have read some wonderfully thoughtful reflections on entering a new year, but only have room to share two from two very different, spiritually grounded women whose writing I admire. I hope you find something you too can take into the new year.

The first is from Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, who writes in her Substack, “The Corners.”  She is an ordained Lutheran minister. She is bold, can be brash, is tattooed, and has been clean and sober for over 34 years. She tells it like it is.

A Collective Resolution for the year of our Lord 2026.

“Whereas we find ourselves in a time in which it is increasingly difficult to see the good in people, and

Whereas people suck but are also unspeakably beautiful, and

Whereas we all, for reasons of still having ice age brains, are more easily impacted by the negative than the positive even if the latter far outnumbers the former, and

Whereas we are exposed to content that rewards the loud, the divisive, and the alarming (even when those things may distort reality), and

Whereas we live in an economy in which our attention is our currency, and

Whereas we can no longer afford the cynicism about each other which keeps us numb and scrolling, and

Whereas we are still hunter-gatherers who need each other to survive,

Therefore,

Be it resolved that:

We the people of 2026 will look for beauty.

We will write down the good things about each other.

We will call our friends just to tell them what we love about them.

When it is we who suck, we will admit it and move on.

We will refuse to be manipulated into believing that we do not need each other.

We choose attention as an act of love — and of resistance .”

The next author is a writer, an artist and a person who finds strength in the contemplative. Rev. Jan Richardson is an ordained United Methodist minister. She often leads retreats and is widely sought as a conference speaker.

THE YEAR AS A HOUSE

Think of the year as a house:

door flung wide in welcome,

threshold swept and waiting,

a graced spaciousness opening and offering itself to you.

Let it be blessed in every room.

Let it be hallowed in every corner.

Let every nook be a refuge and every object set to holy use.

Let it be here that safety will rest.

Let it be here that health will make its home.

Let it be blessed in every room.

Let it be hallowed in every corner.

Let every nook be a refuge

and every object set to holy use.

Let it be here that peace will show its face.

Let it be here that love will find its way.

Here let the weary come

let the aching come

let the lost come

let the sorrowing come.

Here let them find their rest and let them find their soothing

and let them find their place and let them find their delight.

And may it be in this house of a year that the seasons will spin in beauty,

and may it be in these turning days that time will spiral with joy.

And may it be that its rooms will fill with ordinary grace

and light spill from every window to welcome the stranger home.—Jan Richardson

from "How the Stars Get in Your Bones: A Book of Blessings"

And may it all be so.

-Rev. Linda Hart Green