Better because of you

I have to say that New Year means very little to me. The most it affects me is that I will spend the next four months or so trying to remember to write 2015 rather than 2014 whenever I need to write the date down. I don't do New Year's resolutions; I have never stuck to them and since having children I have not stayed up late to celebrate in any way, because children do not conveniently sleep in the next morning just because I'm tired. Please understand that this is no hum bug story. If any of these things work for you, then wonderful and I rejoice with you. But New Year is the subject of this blog because it is significant for most people and does mark a divide in time between the last and the present year.

Over the past three years I have had a similar conversation with one particular friend, well I say conversation, it is more like:
Me: "Well next year has to be better than last year! Nothing could be worse than that!"
My Friend: "Absolutely! Here's to a better year than last year. "
And yet, each year we said that, things seemed to get progressively worse for our little and damaged group. We have been through the loss of our community, followed by leukaemia (twice) and then the death of a wonderful woman to secondary breast cancer. Year after year we wondered how we kept going, how we survived, although battered and weary. But as I was reflecting on all that had happened I found myself not wondering how we got through but knowing how.
We LOVED each other, we HELPED each other, we HELD each other's hands. We called each other on the phone, sent little notes of care and hope, we cooked food for each other, offered lifts to those who needed it, we used social media to update, to ask for prayer, we lit candles and just generally did whatever we were able to no matter where we were!! We wore funny hats to cheer people up and held Christmas in August for someone who would not see this Christmas gone. No one asked us to, no one scripted it, we just did the little we could, in anyway that we could, and this is what made the difference!!

So this year you will not hear me say, "Next year has to be better" Instead I will make a promise I intend to keep and I ask you also to make this promise too....

No matter what the next year brings, in times of joy or times of sadness, through rejoicing and difficulties, I will do my best to be there with you. You may be close by or farther away, I may not know you yet, this may be the year that our stories collide. You may not even meet me or even know my name, I might be a friend of a friend who somehow touches you in a way I do not know, but I will do all I can to hold you, sing for you, touch you, pray for you....if that is what you need. For I know now, thanks to those who have done so for me, that the tick of a clock from one year to the next means nothing. It is given meaning by the sharing of ourselves, our love and our care! This is my promise to you!

With much love in this moment!
Rev R xx