Listening to Sacred Stillness: The Week at the End of the Year

The Week at the End of the Year

This is it. The final week of 2017. The week at the end of the year.

There is still a little time left. Some of us are still stretching to try to reach the goals we set for ourselves this year. We may be fooling ourselves or we may have just enough left in us to complete our tasks.

In a few days we will reach the end of the year. Some of us are celebrating what we have accomplished and some are gathering strength for next year. We may take a well deserved break to rest or we may assess what we could do differently. Some of us will party on New Year’s Eve while others will be up early to see the parade.

For all of us 2017 will be finished and part of the past. There will be nothing more we can do to change it.

This may be an exhausting week for us, struggling to get where we want to be. It may be a week of relaxation between Christmas and New Year’s. This week could be the week that changes everything for us or just one more frustrating week.

Many of us see the end of the year as a goal line. It is as if we are running a race and trying to get to the finish line. The end of the year is measurable. We can review everyone’s performance based on the same deadline.

On the surface that is accurate. As I look more deeply, listening to sacred stillness, there is more. Not all of us are following the same path or using the same calendar.

For some of us the end of the year is already a new beginning.

When the End of the Year is the Beginning

We like to believe we can control what we can measure. It can be comforting to assume measuring time allows us to use it more efficiently.

Measuring time with all our various tools does not necessarily help us relate to it wisely. Our watches and calendars, our hours and days, weeks and months can get in the way.

We invest importance in our measurements of time and assume they have meaning.

There is nothing magic about the end of the year, or the month, or the week, or the day.

Nothing requires us to wait until next week or next month to begin.

I tend to be a fairly organized, focused person. When I was growing up I would make serious New Year’s resolutions and work to keep them. While I still believe in the values of setting goals and working toward them, I no longer need to wait.

We may believe we have valid, healthy reasons for delaying our new beginnings. There may be ways we hope to prepare before we start. We might want to make sure everything is lined up to help us succeed.

There is no reason not to begin today. We are waiting for nothing. Today is just as good a day to begin as next Monday. December may be an even better month to start than January.

We realize, as we begin, there is no difference between the end and the beginning. Each ending is a beginning. The end of the year, each year, is a beginning of the next.

As we take time to listen to sacred stillness we realize we have already begun. Stopping to listen is how we begin.

The Labyrinth of Each Moment, Each Day

One of the disciplines I practice as I listen to sacred stillness is walking a labyrinth.

A labyrinth is not a puzzle to solve or a challenge to meet. Traditional labyrinths follow a pattern which has three parts.

The first part is the journey inward. We start at the edge of the labyrinth and slowly, quietly make our way into it. It is a deliberate process of taking one step at a time. There is plenty of time for breathing, listening, and calming ourselves.

The second part of the labyrinth is spending time at the center. We stand or sit at the labyrinth’s center listening to sacred stillness.

The third part of our practice is the journey outward. We have listened and spent centered time and now return to a world waiting for us.

Each time we walk a labyrinth we learn and reflect on deep truths we hear in sacred stillness. We may recognize something on the journey in, in the center, or on the journey out. There are no rules about where the truths are waiting for us.

We may start walking on the edge of the labyrinth, but there is no beginning and no ending. Our journey in the world brings us to the edge of the labyrinth and continues as we walk away.

Each day, each moment of our everyday lives follows the same pattern as walking a labyrinth. We journey inward, spend time at the center, then journey back out into the world. When we are aware and listening we recognize and reflect on the deep truths of life.

Beginning at the End of the Year

The end of the year on the calendar is arbitrary. How we measure time does not determine whether we are at the beginning or at the end.

Even when we believe we are at the end it does not mean we are finished.

There is no rule we must complete things this week or begin them next week. The end of the year may be exactly the right time for us to begin something new.

We each have our reasons to avoid or delay starting something new. It may be reluctance or fear or fatigue. Now is the perfect time to look those reasons in the eye, deal with them, and begin.

We open our eyes and become aware there is no beginning and no end.

What beginnings does the end of the year bring to us this week?

How can what we complete this week be new beginnings for us today?

[Image by jack dorsey]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.