As we turn the page from 2022 to 2023, we re-member
ourselves to loved ones who have died and to those unknown
to us who have made the final crossing. We entrust them
to God’s mercy and care, knowing they are in good company
in God. My wishes (not merely for myself) and my hope
(for you, for the world) this new year suddenly seem quite simple:

food in the belly, socks and shoes on the feet,
to be clothed not just in sweaters and hats and coats
but in kindness and concern and the affection of others,
one hand to reach out with, one hand to be reached for,
a pillow for every head, a bed for every pillow,
a home—a safe one—for every family, the warm shelter
of kinship and friendship, a roof overhead, one that
will not be met by the vicious weight of war,

the fortune to have neighbors, the privilege to be a neighbor
to humans and other-than-human life forms,
to trees and bees, wetlands and birds, mountaintops
and waterways, clean air to breathe, clean water
to drink, for human rights and earth rights, a decent job,
a fair and livable wage, the freedom to vote without fear,
the sacred right to be revered by one another as images of God
and not to be physically, emotionally, or spiritually desecrated,

the decency to help others, the honor to serve, the awareness
and conviction that we are here for the twoness of the one
thing: love—to receive it gratefully, to incarnate it generously
and daily, to realize everything else shoots out from this one fire
like sparks and embers that float to alight elsewhere;

for beauty to behold and wonder and awe to be held by,
for the wisdom to recognize the healing power of seemingly
insignificant acts—small gestures of goodness, tiny expressions
of thoughtfulness, the lasting impact of tenderness,
the enduring boon of deep sympathy, the capacity of compassion
to seep and spread like water in soil, the taken-for-granted
sacraments of humility and laughter, a hot shower, a good book,
a body with which to feel pleasure and pain that connects us
to others, to creation itself, the simple mystery of creating,
of recreating, blessing, moving, and being moved,

for the courage not to turn away from that which calls for
our attention, our involvement, our personal investment: fear,
rudeness, crudeness, unfairness, injustice, selfishness, greed,
toxic behavior and power plays that hurt the planet and her people,
the dissolution of the need to be right, the craving to have more
and more and more when so many have less and less and less
of what is right and just, of what they need and deserve.

My wish and my hope is that we will dare to care, dare to be lovers,
to be the makers of peace by acting peacefully not violently,
to play our small but indispensable part in abolishing indifference
and callousness, waking up to what matters most, making gratefulness,
awe, joy, and praise habits of our hearts, while partnering together with
the Holy One to make God’s dream come true on earth as it is in heaven.

Let the people say—may it be so.

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