Connecting in love at New Year’s
“Let’s get together at New Year’s, share our joys and burdens, and pray together for the family.” It was my cousin’s suggestion, but the idea must have long been dwelling inside each of us, for we all immediately bonded. I still remember that feeling of unbounded intimacy the first time we met, that baring of souls, that unloading of burdens that we had been carrying in our hearts for years—whether concerns about our mothers or anxieties about our children, whether the deep sense of frustration we sometimes feel in middle age, or the worries we have about our parents’ health. These were all secrets that we wouldn’t dare to speak about with others, but we could talk about them with the group, weeping as we spoke, and feeling much the better for it and not ashamed in the least. Afterwards, we came together to pray about all the concerns we had just spoken of, finding a sense of shared burdens, community and blessings in prayer. The upshot is that I adore this New Year get-together. It has made a deep impact in my life that far exceeds the traditional festive reunions at New Year’s. And it has had an enduring effect, so that no matter what happens, deep in my soul I can find support and consolation in knowing that at New Year’s we will come together in prayer.
We’re family, but we’re closer than family. As always, we share in joy with our family and friends when we are reunited during the New Year holidays, but we bring the difficulties beneath the glittering surface of our lives to our small gatherings. There we find release in sharing and hope in praying together.
For me, Chinese New Year has taken on a whole new meaning these past few years. I’ve awaited it with greater anticipation than I have for decades. Life no longer seems such a lonely trek. Instead we can pick each other up and march forward. Loss no longer seems such a setback. Instead, through our mutual support, it has become part of a rich spiritual journey. Take these familiar passages: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12); and “The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:6). Though long known to me, the words have come to take on new meaning. Is everything going as smoothly and as perfectly as I want in life? Of course not. But I have greater courage to face what the future brings.
If you asked me to define what New Year’s means to me now, I would say: New Year’s is a period of reunion when you give praise for what life brings. It is a time to offer good tidings and blessings to those whose lives are far from perfect. It is a time of hope, a time to enumerate wisdom gained, a time for prayer—because everything, every single thing, is in the hands of our loving God.