A Prayer for the New Year

As we tip from one year to another, 

let us slide with ease and grace into 

the next unknown.

Let us seek the holy in the ordinary 

so that the extraordinary means more.  

May we burn the things that do not serve. 

Let us burn our selfishness,

small slips of paper clutched in our hand

listing the reasons we are right

and deserving of stolen things.  

Let us burn half hearted attempts 

to care for our neighbor

the convenience weighed against the care;

care never quite heavy enough. 

Let us burn the voice that whispers

you are not good enough

you were never good enough

you will not and never be.

May the ash of these tiny fires 

fertilize the soil of our flourishing.

Let it nourish a love and tender care

that inspires others 

to burn the year away

to join the planting of a new year

in the holy ash of the old. Amen.