Endings and Beginnnings.

 I'm a Seinfeld fan. I'm a Christmas fan. So, as a fan of comedy and also a Christian (some might dispute this last part, but it is what it is.) I used to both laugh and cringe a little at Festivus  for the Rest of Us. If you are a fan of the show then I don't have to explain it. If not then let's just say "Frank" had a personal take on the holidays that was hilarious. :-)

 Anyway, I have my own little personal New Year's Tradition. It started around the late 70's or early 80's. I would go into the woods with a stick or something to prod the weeds and trail and talk to God. It was my way of ending the old year and giving the hopes and worries of the past year to God and asking for "stuff" I'm American ya know ;-) for the coming year. But, it was also a great time to get quiet and really try to listen to that still small voice within.

My favorite place to do this was Noccalula Falls in River City. River City is my name "sometime sarcastic and sometimes fondly for the city of my birth." Gadsden, Alabama. I didn't always go to the falls but it was a great place to walk along Black Creek and under the falls and really commune with my spirit and talk to my maker. I would start at Jack's and get coffee and a biscuit. Then I would walk over the bridge and toward the campground and find the trail off in the woods down to the creek. Cold and clear and if it was high babbling comfort for my meditations. Also, jumping rocks and plowing through the woods. Anyway, I would then talk about my hopes and my failures and my anxieties and my unlimited future. I was a young man and I was trying to grow up. Anyway, over the years that walk was done in Altoona, Gallant, Gadsden, and all over the area where I could get into the woods. I have even tried it later on the beach in Hawaii but nothing was quiet as peaceful as the area of my raising. Be it in the woods in Gadsden or the woods in Altoona or around Gallant. Noccalula was my favorite spot but not my only spot.

 Anyway, this morning while my family slept I went out to my back yard and walked down the private road a little way. The private road leads to houses that are back in the woods and I have talked to a few of the folks back there so there was no problem with walking a little way down the road. I thought about the past year. It was a mixed year. I thought about the good and bad the right and the wrong of the past year. It wasn't the all day walk of my youth. But, it felt good. It was a release of my spiritual "cache." :-) There's a modern word that I would not have referenced back in 1978 or 1985 for that matter. Anyway, it was short but I enjoyed it and felt better for having done it.

There will be New Year's Resolutions aplenty I'm sure. I more than likely won't make many of them. But, I do hope to manager to listen more this year. To find a sanctuary either at home or work or play to get in touch with my source. I no longer think of prayer as a magic bullet or of God as an angry old man in the sky who reads my mind. But, I treasure and find hope and sanity in my prayers. No, I'm not a church going devout evangelical. I don't think I will ever be that again. But, I have always found hope and guidance in prayer and meditation and sometime just in asking.

So, Festivus for the Rest of us. But, the personal tradition of the New Year's Prayer Walk for me. I hope you are blessed.
Peace!