New Year is a contractual, artificial date. It\u2019s not associated with any particular change in nature or with an astronomical event such as a solstice or equinox. However, this is a good opportunity to summarize the last 365 days and to think about the forthcoming ones. Actually, the summary of the last year is the main content of newspapers, radio and television. There are also some predictions made, although these say more about their creators than the future itself. Anyway it\u2019s good to have such a watershed; at least to delude ourselves that we can change something along with the slogan: \u2018New Year \u2013 new you\u2019.<\/p>\n
Most of us have an inclination to see our own lives in rather dark and gloomy colours. Quite easily we complain about many things around us; sometimes we do it justifiably. This approach has one irremovable flaw: we overlook how fortunate we in fact are. We take so many things for granted, as obviously and justifiably deserved. I\u2019d like to make a suggestion to you. A simple task just for the very end and the very beginning of the year.<\/p>\n
Find a quiet place and fifteen minutes of your time. Take a comfortable position and make a specific prayer. In your mind go through the whole of last year, day by day or week by week, from one event to another \u2013 and thank God for everything you have had, everything you have got, everything that has happened. Especially, thank God for things you treat as obvious: your flat or house, electricity, tap water, food, family… These are only examples. There is no magic in this kind of prayer; but it might help you to realise that you are relatively better-off than many others; that your life is not as bad as you think. I also suggest that you thank God especially for the people and situations that have not been nice and easy \u2013 because all of them reveal who you really are.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that final suggestion made by me is not the best recipe for a Hogmanay party. But it is maybe worth trying while still sober, or after the party; I mean: well after the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Year is a contractual, artificial date. It\u2019s not associated with any particular change in nature or with an astronomical event such as a solstice or equinox. However, this is a good opportunity to summarize the last 365 days and to think about the forthcoming ones. Actually, the summary of the last year is the main content of newspapers, radio and television. There are also some predictions made, although these say more about their creators than the future itself. Anyway it\u2019s good to have such a watershed; at least to delude ourselves that we can change something along with the slogan: \u2018New Year \u2013 new you\u2019. Most of us have an inclination to see our own lives in rather dark and gloomy colours. Quite easily we complain about many things around us; sometimes we do it justifiably. This approach has one irremovable flaw: we overlook how fortunate we in fact are. We take so many things for granted, as obviously and justifiably deserved. I\u2019d like to make a suggestion to you. A simple task just for the very end and the very beginning of the year. Find a quiet place and fifteen minutes of your time. Take a comfortable position and make a specific prayer. In your mind go through the whole of last year, day by day or week by week, from one event to another \u2013 and thank God for everything you have had, everything you have got, everything that has happened. Especially, thank God for things you treat as obvious: your flat or house, electricity, tap water, food, family… These are only examples. There is no magic in this kind of prayer; but it might help you to realise that you are relatively better-off than many others; that your life is not as bad as you think. I also suggest that you thank God especially for the people and situations that have not been nice and easy \u2013 because all of them reveal who you really are. Perhaps that final suggestion made by me is not the best recipe for a Hogmanay party. But it is maybe worth trying while still sober, or after the party; I mean: well after the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}