I am not much of a resolution maker. I do like to choose a word for the year though, and this year I’ve chosen the word hope.

I also like to reset my own inner rhythm and with that the rhythm of my days.

I have become accustomed to both a morning routine and an evening routine.

These routines set up my day and allow me to run smoothly and also calm me at evening so that I sleep well and am prepared for tomorrow.

At the beginning of the new year I reevaluate my daily tasks, my thought processes, and the position that my heart is in.

I try to tune in to the natural world around me and find a simple and spiritual rhythm to set my inner metronome to.

Yes, there are storm in nature. Waves that crash errantly against the shore but under the chaos there is the rhythm of tide…ebb and flow, ebb and flow, ebb and flow.

I know there will be times throughout the year that may be filled with chaos, sorrow, and even joy…things that will not be under my control – things that I cannot know or even think of yet.

It’s the rhythm of the tide that I seek…they rhythm of the earth spinning, the sun and the moon and the stars. The rhythm of the seasons changing, the rhythm of my own heart beating and the rhythm of my own lungs breathing in and breathing back out again.

And when I have sat still enough to feel this rhythm…then I begin to add my own dance within it. A place for morning worship and evening prayer, a place for daily tasks and for self-care, a place for those I love, a place for driving to work and coming home again at end of day.

My own circadian rhythm that beats with the ocean, the leaves on the trees, the sun, and the seasons.