As the year comes to an end, this is a little gift you can give yourself this week: take a little time to sit with these beautiful words of a reflection by Michele Guinness from her book “A Little Kosher Seasoning”.
Now let me learn lessons from the past, before the old year is gone.
Help me to put past experiences in their true perspective.
Let me see how much more numerous were my blessings than my privations,
how my losses, trials and sorrows contained the seeds of higher good,
how needlessly I fretted over things which at the time seemd all-important, and now seem small and insignificant.
Let no self-deception hide my sins and shortcomings from me, the neglected opportunities, misspent time, gifts and abilities perverted to lower purposes against my own better judgement.
Grant, that like Jacob, wrestling with an adversary in the dark, I may not let the departing year go, until I have wrested a blessing from its trials and mistakes.
I wish you a peaceful and joy-filled Christmas, and a chance to rest and be still and connect again with yourself and with those who matter to you most.
See you next year!