Deep Contentment

It is the final weekend of the year.

Whether this year has filled you with joy or with sorrow, been very profitable or a financial struggle, it will soon be over. While there may be actions you can still take to affect the outcome of your year, there are only a few days left.

Each of us has had a year filled with experiences. We have had times we hope we remember forever, and times we wish we could forget. We have worked hard, cared deeply, longed to understand and to be understood.

We have spent 365 days together on this planet.

Whatever your experience has been this year, at least three things are true.

This year has lessons to teach us. We have gained insights along the way, and more lessons await us as we reflect on the year we have had. It is easy for us to get caught up in the immediate and lose track of deeper lessons.

We can pay now, or we can pay later.

The next few days may be an opportunity to pause and listen for some of this year’s lessons.

The lessons we learn depend on how we remember what we have experienced.

The lessons I learn have more to do with my perceptions than with my experiences. Reflection is an opportunity for lessons to sort themselves out. The times I may have experienced as frustrating or painful at the time reveal value I never would have discovered without them.

Slowly, in time, deep truths come into focus.

The lessons will continue.

New Year’s Eve may be the end of this year, but it will not be the end of the lessons.

What are the lessons you are learning this year?

When have you learned your deepest lessons?

[Image by Vinoth Chandar]