{"id":7326,"date":"2015-12-28T10:34:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T15:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=7326"},"modified":"2015-12-28T10:35:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T15:35:51","slug":"monday-morning-moment-last-monday-of-2015-begin-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=7326","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Moment – Last Monday of 2015 – Begin Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blog<\/a>Photo Credit: Garfieldh8sMondays<\/a><\/p>\n

Here we are on the last Monday of 2015. The last Monday of the year. For some of us, there’s a collective deep sigh! We made it through this year of tough Mondays. Celebrating…quietly.<\/p>\n

Over coffee this morning, we talked about the huge build-up to Christmas, and how today, in comparison, is almost a let-down. I don’t feel that way at all. On the Monday after Christmas, I feel satisfied and hopeful. Christmas was wonderful…even with the heart hurt of not having all our children with us and my dad states away in assisted living. Hard things are always strewn across even the best of holidays.<\/p>\n

We rejoice in what was good and hope for what can be in the year ahead.<\/p>\n

That’s how I also feel about this last Monday of the year. We didn’t deal with a terrifying diagnosis but we have friends who did. We didn’t have to grieve the loss of a family member but we grieve still the great loss of dear friends this year. We went through extraordinary change (in work and community) but thankfully\u00a0kept those relationships. We did not suffer joblessness and\u00a0do not take for granted the great\u00a0blessing of gratifying work.<\/p>\n

Work this year was oddly harder than any year I can remember. Some situations in life we expect to be hard – like the adjustments we made living cross-culturally, and like the year my mom died. This year was an unexpected hard.<\/p>\n

In a season of chronic financial leanness and a year of organizational change,\u00a0including planned and necessary\u00a0downsizing, we still have a job. Months of “just keep doing what you’ve been doing” may now be winding down to make way for new direction and engagement.\u00a0We breathe deeply the air of new possibilities in the days ahead.<\/p>\n

Although there is nothing innately powerful in a last Monday of the year or the coming first Monday of 2016,\u00a0the\u00a0idea of a fresh start\u00a0energizes us with\u00a0hope and anticipation. This ending and beginning do stir our hearts and minds to begin again…<\/p>\n

In 1970, a film was released entitled Scrooge<\/em><\/a>. It was a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol<\/a>. <\/em>The old curmudgeon Scrooge was very well-played by a 30-something Albert Finney. As I look to this Monday and the next, his song “Begin Again” came to mind. If you have never seen it, watch the YouTube clip:<\/p>\n