every new year i ask god to give me a new word to ruminate on for the coming days and beyond. for a couple years it has been Rest and I have been attempting to learn the gift of rest in my mind, heart, life, emotions. this year when i asked, i felt the word 'Rejuvenate' rise to the surface of my mind and swim there. Okay. what does rejuvenate mean? I knew that it meant something in the realm of refreshing and newness. I looked up the definition on the internet, because my giant dictionary/synonym book has begun to fall apart and I require a new one most urgently.
REJUVENATE: restore (a river or stream) to a condition characteristic of a younger landscape.
make (someone or something) look or feel younger, fresher, or more lively, (to give vigor or youth)
Reinvigorate, reanimate, reclaim, refresh, revitalize, renew, refresh, reconstruct, recondition, regenerate, revivify, (that's a lot of re's!)
spruce up, exhilarate, restitution, make young again, update, breathe new life into, give face lift to, impart new life to.
I see this as my life desperately in need of fresh joy, life, refreshment of hope and vision, a spiritual face lift, and a total renewal of my inner self to be regenerated into a more alive version of myself. I've been so groggy with the sleep in soul-things. Only partially awake. My heart needs to be softened by the oil of love that can only be accumulated through purposeful time and intimate contact with the holy spirit and meditating on Jesus and listening for his glorious voice to daily direct my unsure steps into leaping and bounding and flight.
I've been praying for awhile to be awakened in places that have been dormant or that I've believed a lie over, such as who I am and what my purpose is in life. I embrace the simplicity of my existence while still keeping near to my heart that it is a miracle to be alive and to be a mother, wife and friend. I am thankful every day for a roof over my head, running water and a warm bed to sleep in. I am content lately with the small goings-on of home life rather than dreaming discontentedly of travel, maybe because I did a fair amount of travel this past year and found home to be such a refuge. Travel is still in my desires, especially to Europe, but it feels more like a thing that will happen when it's supposed to and I trust God to bring it about when it's time. Flying in airplanes and being in hotel rooms and eating out is more exhausting to me than I had imagined. I suppose it's mainly the being in public and having to feel "On" more than anything else. My body is healing but it's a slow process and I lack energy often.
So, this year I hope for a quickening of my mind, heart, spirit and even an energizing of my body to feel the rejuvenation I might gain in this new year through spiritual insight and closeness with God, and accomplishing goals I set long ago but didn't have the health (or persistence) to carry out. Maybe I can even blame it on perfect timing.. and I entrust perfect timing of the unfolding of important life things to a kind Friend that holds my life in his glorious hands and pours compassionate thoughts over me each moment, even if I in my humanity cannot often feel it, or fathom it, his love is unending and his delight for who I am is ridiculous. Aren't we the same as creators? We are feverishly happy when we look upon the things (or small humans) we helped make. Whether it be a song, sculpture or pottery, a poem, a painting, a garden we worked on to harvest flowers or vegetation to feed our families. I hope we all have a rich blessing over the fruit of our hands this coming year, resourceful with what we're given and brimming over with creativity and lustrous love. May we be rejuvenated and new the way we can only be when we spend time in prayer, meditation, reflection as well as pressing forward in this day we've been given.
