Farewell, 2021

I bid you farewell, 2021! But before we part ways, let’s take a moment to reflect on the year.

If 2020 felt like a whitewater kayak ride, as it did (see Reflecting on 2020: A Year of Change). Then, 2021 has been more of traveler’s journey.

As I began the year, in Lighten up 2021, I spoke of deep processing of our first pandemic year — and heavy expectations pressuring my heart for 2021. I felt God saying to me, to us, to:

Remember this, 
You're meant to travel lightly,
Rest your body and soul,
And live your purpose
In small daily and tiny steps.

I felt as if I’d been climbing forever

And, I needed rest. Oh, how I needed rest.

And so I set out at a steady pace, determined not to rush or push 2021 one bit. But to let the journey unfold, one tiny step at a time.

I realized, I must resist old patterns over-thinking and of making things harder than they need to be. I needed to clear out the clutter of the prior year, and even years prior.

And so I set my intentions to traveling lightly

The words are right there for me to see, the “traveling lightly” way. “Rest your body and soul, and live your purpose in small daily, tiny steps.”

If we’re traveling lightly, resting, and living our purpose each day, we’re going the right way. We’re on the path.

I determined to step lightly forward, all year, reminding myself and us, again and again, to find our own rhythm and pace.

*As I say farewell to 2021, I reflect on a journey of “traveling lightly,” moving steadily forward in small daily and tiny steps*. (Note: My husband took this photo of a friend and I walking up to the Van Thong Cave in Da Nang, Vietnam, at the very beginning of 2020, oblivious to the early beginnings of the pandemic.)

And now, we stand on the threshold of 2022.

Like travelers, we’ve reached a natural place to stop for a bit and explore the vistas of the path behind. We are at a plateau, a small resting place, a bench on which to sit and reflect.

Here, as we prepare to enter 2022, let’s pause to notice how far we’ve come. Let’s ask ourselves good questions about our journey and the threshold in which we stand.

As we bid 2021 farewell, may we heed the call of the bench to sit and reflect on our journey. (This bench offers respite at the entrance to the Van Thong Cave.)

Transitions are reflection opportunities

In these short days as one year ends and another begins, we’re in a liminal in-between place that invites contemplation. While insights may elude us, we can simply rest into this discomfort and keep asking good, curious questions.

As answers come, they’ll point the way forward.

Here are threshold questions for you

Always, a new year is a threshold. And, standing on the threshold invites us to examine the threshold where we stand. We look at what we’re leaving and where we’re entering.

If you want to travel lighter into 2022, consider questions such as:

Where did my journey take me in 2021? And what did I learn from the year?
What did I carry? And are there any burdens I can leave behind, so that I might travel lighter still? What must be carried forward and what do I want to carry forward?
Did I forget to pack anything that I might want to add for 2022?
Do I have the right traveling companions, ones that encourage and support me?
And, where do I see myself at the end of the year?

It’s a soft farewell, not a hard goodbye to 2021

Rest into these questions, my friend. And as you rest, let your shoulders drop and feel your breath slow again. Remember that you don’t need all of the answers right now. They’ll come, with time.

Let your load feel lighter, easier. Rest.

We stand at the threshold of new ventures

The journey continues into a new year. And, I’m realizing more and more that this is a lifelong journey, a wandering path ahead. In The Soul of a Pilgrim (a beautiful book by the way), Christine Valters Paintner says of her pilgrim journey:

“The inner pilgrim in me feels the call of moving outward. My inner pilgrim feels a longing to travel. She wants to walk across new landscapes and find herself a stranger. This helps me release what I know and enter into a deeper truth I can only find when I wander.”
Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim