I know some people have certain traditions that they do every year to ring in the new year. For example, my travelling brother cleaned his whole trailer out. He said he like to start out fresh and clean. I thought about how I can improve myself in the upcoming year. I mean, I always need to be nicer, more patient, and more loving. But those are general ideas. For the last couple of days, my parents and I have been discussing New Years Resolutions. My mom read a meditation about following Mary’s example as she was humble and peaceful before God. Another reflection I read also encouraged me to emulate Mary as she pondered the events of Jesus’ conception and birth. It even said she “allowed them to work their way into the marrow of her bones.” That sounded pretty intense. I do like to ponder. The problem is, often I find myself dwelling on the wrong things such as what I could have/would have/should have said or done. Then today I read part of Pope Francis’ homily from New Years Day. 

The Holy Father noted that Mary pondered both the joys and sorrows of life, dwelling on them, “with God,” in her heart. She pondered them by always turning them over to God. When we do that, the Pope said, “God, Who keeps us in His heart, then comes to dwell in our lives.” At the beginning of the new year, the Pope continued, “we too, as Christians on our pilgrim way, feel the need to set out anew from the centre, to leave behind the burdens of the past and to start over from the things that really matter.”

That gave me a better viewpoint and a more specific way of letting go of the past by giving them to God. Then I should be better at living more peacefully in the present.

I Found God today with help to direct my pondering to a more peaceful end.