Escape the Race

Well guys, we made it. Happy New Year. I'm sure many of us celebrated at midnight with champagne, sparkling cider, hoots and hollers, dancing, kissing, and setting resolutions. I'm willing to bet that some of us, even in the midst of our revelry, questioned the exact reason we celebrate the passing of time. Why are we so hopeful for the coming year? Do we truly believe it will be any different than all the years previous, full of "ups and downs", "highs and lows"? Or is it merely the dropping of the ball, the ringing of the bell, the firework in the sky that gives us this false sense of hope for some rebirth, renewal, some mystical, magical perfect year that has eluded us up to this point? Do we really believe this year will be "our year", or will it simply be another 365 days, some good, some bad, with the typical challenges and triumphs that come from journeying through this mortal existence?

I'm sorry, did I just kill the mood?

Still, I join with the rest of the world in reflecting and setting some goals for a happy, healthy, productive 2016. There's a multitude of things I'd like to see happen in the coming year. I'd like to read more, write more. I'd like to relearn how to play the piano, and we're hoping to add another child to our family this year. Of course, those who know me know that enjoying The X-Files revival and watching the Cardinals win the Superbowl are atop my list of hopes for the year. But these are all things that may or may not happen. Things that are largely dependent upon the winds of fate. So as I wax a bit poetic and grow even more reflective, I started thinking about the bigger picture of my life.

I've started to imagine what my 2016 would be like if I made a consistent, daily effort to always remember the Savior. In "No Doubt About It" by Sheri Dew, she says "Imagine how our perspective and behavior would be affected if we truly always remembered Him, because remembering the Lord and remembering who we are seem to be inseparably connected." 

I've started to consider what my year would be like if I could differentiate between good, better, and best, and spend my time and attention on that which matters the most. I will turn 29 this year, and the last decade of my life has been one of experimentation and self-discovery. I think for most of us, we really grow up and become who we truly are during our 20s. As 2016 is my last year of my 20s, I feel that I need to put into practice some of the lessons I have learned from young-adulthood. 

I have learned that we can't be everything we want to be. I can't be a martial artist and a free runner and a musician and an author and a teacher and a world traveler and a mother and a wife and a disciple and a missionary and a seamstress and and and... The list goes on. This leads me to my number one goal for not only 2016, but for the rest of my life: ESCAPE THE RACE.

Maybe it's the time off of work, or the time spent up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, or the time I've spent reading satirical fiction, but I've come to see how restricting our society can be. American culture dictates that you work your fingers down to the bone, that you make more money so you can buy more things, but then you have to make even more money so that you can maintain those things and buy even better things so you can feel better about how much time you spend working or so that you can justify the debt you've gotten yourself into. I speak from experience. But where, in the midst of this race, do we find the time to create? To invite beauty, art, love, and peace into our lives? The race doesn't allow for personal reflection, for personal growth - only for professional aspirations and unnecessary stress.

I hope to escape the race. I don't know what this will look like for me, or for any of us. We can't exactly quit work and make music. I don't intend to move my family into a van down by the river just so we can live some sort of hippie lifestyle you may think I'm describing. Rather, I think it starts by leaving work at work. I think it means making the most of our vacation days. I think it means talking more honestly, more passionately, and more frequently. I think it means developing our talents, not so we can check it off some abstract resolution to do list, but so that we can really get in touch with what we have to offer this world. I think it means working to live, not living to work, and not putting so much stock in things that, in the end, don't really matter at all.

I've spent the better part of my life stressed out, and it has limited my progress in so many ways. I don't think that the stroke of midnight last night held any magic in it whatsoever, or that I will magically become the chillest individual out there, but I do think that it might be the start of something beautiful. 

I hope you have an epic year. I hope you get closer to God, more in touch with your heart and soul, that you  can let peace and contentment pour over you like rain and wash the corruption and decay of a wicked world out of your life. I hope you tangibly feel your importance in the universe. Happy 2016.

Photo courtesy of Pinterest, aka the best website of all time.