Well, so our backyard sprinkler froze and our living room flooded over the holiday. Good times. It's always something, huh? As I was thinking about this week's New Year's post, I found a list of sayings I once had when I lived in Litiz, Pennsylvania. The area has a big Amish and Mennonite population, plus a plethora of elder-religions of the Colonial era like the Lititz's Moravians and the nearby Ephrita Cloister (which you can tour and it's lovely). Plus all the existing Christian churches and you get a local tradition of them putting their wise sayings on billboards by the street. Churches everywhere have them and even liquor stores and auto mechanics got in on the action. Here's a list of funny sayings I collected:

  • "Give Satan an inch and he will become a ruler." (very pertinent to our times in 2020)
  • "Got beer"
  • "Do your plains fail or do you fail to plan?"
  • "As long as your eyes hear, your head won't swell." (wha?)
  • "Do you own things or do things own you?"
  • "Beer won't come to you. You'll have to come to us." 

I picked this week's saying from my list.

The Prompt: New Start

This week's prompt:

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today."
         – Neffsville Auto Center

First task is to sit for a meditation on that for 5-10 minutes or however long you feel is good to you.

The Drawing

20200106_151044

My Haiku

…inspired by my drawing:

Another warm light,
the edge of the wide open:
the year's gray morning

The Reflection

January 1 is probably my favorite day of the year: it marks another beginning, a do-over, a clearing away of the bad karma (as if karma followed this Roman calendar). It's a time of new lists and new plans. And it always feels refreshing to me. 

 

Now: you.