Do it with purpose - CC10

5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – (silence); Twenty days ago many of us did the countdown – expectantly waiting for a ball to drop, the third hand of your watch to reach the summit, or the clock on your phone show the change of date and year – perhaps you did and then – perhaps you did not – perhaps it was not even your new year to celebrate. Regardless, did you ever ask yourself why it is done, the countdown – is it done to chase the old year out or is it done to herald the new year in.

In the end it may not seem a big deal one way or the other – but, if you ask me – I think there is a difference – I think – how we look at time matters – as we welcome this new year – a new year full of opportunities, full of things that have never been before – I ask you to do it with purpose.

It was always strange to me -- this sentiment of the new year we celebrate so exuberantly …this quite arbitrary moment in time, ten days after the winter solstice – but the time of year, if not the date was always special to me – it became a time to welcome new and brighter days – a time when nature once again prepares the frozen and barren waste to wake up from its wintry slumber so it can once again give birth to a new and verdant future – a future beyond our wildest imagination – a future filled with dreams of a new day in the morning – and yet, a time of pain and of withdrawal that produces something so very beautiful

Each day as we wake up, we are privileged, privileged to imagine and shape the new day – and to fill this new day with anything we want – with everything that is beautiful and true, with friendship and freedom – a new day, a blank slate

Sadly, we rarely pay any attention to time even as we so precariously balance on the knife edge that is our here and now - while time itself so inexorably flies over us towards the future leaving in its wake the past – moving us with the time.

There are moments when we end up feeling lost, lost between the past and the future – lost in a Neverland of confusion and stress, a place where there is no here nor now  - a place in time where we feel that we lost all hope – wishing there were someone out there to anchor us in the current of time, in the present – someone to just put their arms around us – cradle us in their embrace and say – I’ve got you – I’ve got you right now, just close your eyes and I will take you back to the present – just relax, listen to my heart and realize you do not have to face this alone – I am here with you – here for you –

At times it feels there are so many things in our lives that we cannot control – things that because they were not predicted or even because they are not predictable wreak havoc to our days – our lives. One thing happens and soon another leading us inexorably down that slippery sloop towards a place where we can no longer grab the edge of the present and bring ourselves back to the here and now – a place where we seize having any control over what is happening and the stress that kept us going for so long, instead turns us unproductive

At times; we seem to forget how much of our days that we can control – like how we plan our days and how we use the checks and balances we / all of us introduce to our lives in order to get soommmee  -- semblance of control to our life – but, it is not only how we choose to fill out time that matter – it matter also with what.

Sure we all have duties to perform, but we can never let those obligations change who we are and how we choose to make our free-time meaningful – in Sweden we say that some of the scent always remains with the hand that gives away a flower.

Think about that – some of the scent always remain with the hand that gives away a flower – it means that giving has its own sweet reward – if we consciously decide to give – for instance, forgiveness or second chances – or if we choose to be that anchor for somebody, to firmly anchor them in the here and now – if we freely choose to give them the gift of the present – to give of ourselves – not in anticipation of a reward – now or in another life – then, when we choose to act entirely altruistically, the scent of the flower…the  contentment following that unselfish act will give us a satisfaction beyond that of any external stimuli

We have that chance every second of that new day no matter how busy we are, to take a moment out of our own day to make another person feel loved and important – and as the glow of their new-found importance make them shine like a bright beacon in the dark – as if lit from inside – we will also get a chance to savor some of that ambrosia – delight in the scent of that sweet flower – delight in that moment given – the scent that always stays with the hand that gave it away.

It is said that; -A man who dares to waste even one hour of his time has not yet discovered the value of life – but that must never mean that we should rush headlong through life going from one task to another forever busy – it simply means to have a purpose – that since time is inevitably moving on – to be mindful of how you spend your time and to allow yourself to live in the present – that we take the time to learn from the past for the future but that we go on living in the here and now.

We must allow ourselves to stop in the middle of our busy day to smell the roses – stop to watch a beautiful sunset – or stop by the side of the road in the early spring time to enjoy the first spring flowers as they fight their way through layers of snow to light up your day and to give you hope for warmer days to come -- that the flowers we give our loved ones are not just a generic bouquet but one where we painstakingly took the time to choose each flower by itself matching in our minds eye the person for which the flowers are meant.

I never got it – I could never get a grip on the euphoria I am supposed to feel as the old year is fading out and as we count a new one in. For me each new day is a gift, each new day is the promise of a new beginning.

Every morning as we wake up, we are privileged to imagine and shape a new day – and to fill this new day with everything that is beautiful and true – with friendship and freedom – a new day, a blank slate – a time in which we have the power to choose to give a little bit of ourselves –

So as you go by your new day, your new year – I ask you to do it with purpose – remembering that a kind word or a genuine smile are selfless acts that can make a difference in someone’s life. Go out there and take the chance to carry out that random act of kindness, with no expectation of a reward – do it – and revel in the scent of your flower.