Monday Manna
New Year dreaming, lists, and hare-brained ideas...
Good morning friends, and a blessed New Year to each and every one of you ~
Here we are at the start of a new year (I consider all of January the new year beginning!). I’ve stopped putting pressure on myself to reflect and vision by January 1, because the reality is, we are often still very much in holiday mode with kids home, travel, and unpatterned days.
So today’s reflection is going to focus on that end of year/new year reflecting we want to do, because if you haven’t yet, it’s not too late — actually, there are very few things in life where it is ever too late. Remember that.
Amid all the heartache and shock this year has already held for our nation and communities, there is a beautiful invitation this year gives us, and the promise God is doing a new thing (see Isaiah 43 ). On this Martin Luther King Jr. day, I am especially thinking about the power of vision — of holding fast and staying grounded in our dreams and integrity, even when the opposing current is so strong we might wonder if we’re moving forward at all.
There’s always a lot of focus in the new year on a fresh start, which I love, and yet, I also believe God uses and builds upon where we have been, and who we have been before. I think there is often too much regret or self-judgment riddled in there otherwise, and the truth is, you are here today because of who you were before. That matters. So let’s do what Father Richard Rohr so wisely names all the time — include and transcend. It’s all part of it. And this, too, brings a softer and gentler posture to these changes we may feel stirred to make in our lives. It’s not one mis-step and then everything’s over (as much as my all-or-nothing thinking leads me to believe). Forward and backward and forward again. It’s a cha-cha.
Along those lines, I am someone who does love end of year reflection as part of the new year visioning because I feel like we make more whole-hearted choices when we intentionally gaze at the ones we’ve made before. We need to pause and trace the loving presence of God which has accompanied us through the life landscape of this past year—doing so often deepens our trust and hones our vision for the landscape to come.
So for today — I’m offering a bit of 2025 reflecting as well as a few little lists for moving into 2026…
One of the things I especially like to look at on the year’s closing is the note on my phone where I keep notes about my “star word.” This is the guiding word I carry through the year. Some years, I’ve chosen my own, and others, I’ve received a word at church on our Star Gift Sunday (I’ve written about that here).
My 2025 word last year was LIGHTLY, and as I hold that word up to the kind of year we had in 2025, it almost feels laughable. And yet, that is exactly the grace of this word-gift from the Spirit. There was so much in the world that was heavy and hard, but the call and guidance from God to live “lightly” felt like a preserver holding me up in the water. There were some big things for me personally this year — turning forty, launching my Etsy site, and having my first art show — and yet all of those things were lessons for me in the call to hold things lightly. This is the opposite of control (which is most often what I try to do). I came back many times to this quote from Ram Dass…
Next week, I’m going to share my 2026 star word which I received on Epiphany Sunday at our church, because the other thing I want to focus on today is the chance for you to dream a little bit. We are now officially in the church season of Epiphany — literally meaning revelation and new discoveries (sometimes about things that have been there all along). I wonder what God will reveal to you this year…how God might surprise you. What might be uncovered or what might be birthed in you this year? And as part of this prayerful wondering, I want to invite you to take yourself lightly and to make a fun, little list…
Many of you read and love Suleika Jaouad ‘s work, as I do, and in her new year’s post about “Making Five Lists,” one of the lists she makes each year is “My Most Hare-Brained Ideas.” I have now done this a couple of years, and it is so refreshing. It gets me out of my boxy, sensible, realistic, self-protective head lock into one that helps my head and heart take a 360. We live in a glorious world of possibility. And if there was ever a time in human history when we need imagination, when we need to dream the seemingly impossible, it is now.
So please take some time this week to settle in, reflect a bit on last year, and make your own hair-brained ideas list. It needn’t be long. The ideas don’t have to be grandiose, but they certainly can be. And they definitely shouldn’t be self-edited. Go to culinary school. Travel to Japan. Get your pilot’s license. Give up the thing you never thought you could give up. Take over the White House.
And as you dream, remember a beautiful man who never stopped dreaming, and kept the dream alive for a world we are still working toward today. See how the Spirit prompts you…the ideas may (read: should) feel completely unrealistic, and that’s a large part of the point. Hold it all lightly. Smile as you write. Maybe even have fun making your list.
God carried us through 2025, and God will this year, too. So dream, my friends…we are held in the Shepherd’s arms and held close to Her heart.
A Prayer
One of the most crucial lessons the Spirit sent me last year and which I am carrying into this new year is the need to let go. And so I find myself turning again to the yearnings in my prayer, “For A New Year,” from my book, Ash and Starlight: Prayers for the Chaos and Grace of Daily Life, Second Edition.
For the New Year
Gracious One,
I thank you for holding my
hand in this fresh, new year…
Against my inclination
and with your help,
I let go of my desire for
more control over my life.
My hunger to know what’s coming
and to be ready for it.
My expectations to be in charge.
Have you not taught me again and again
how the joy is in the flexibility?
How all the unexpected,
the unwanted, the unexplained
things coalesce to carve me into
the person I really want to be?
Even the changes I asked for,
the changes I wanted,
can cause anxiety.
Treading on this shifting soil
calls for a steadiness
beyond my own capabilities.
So I trust your hand to hold mine,
carrying me into this new land –
good but different.
You are my Birthing Mother,
always re-creating, always open to change.
You keep showing me
while change is eternally constant,
so is your presence.
You engrain in me
how hope is born through struggle
and the fresh start brought through
change is an invitation to grow.
Whenever something leaves,
something new comes.
Please give me the
wisdom of soul, Loving One,
to look for it.
For a soft heart open to newness,
sensitive to others’ pain,
resilient with hope,
trusting in darkness….
this is the heart for
which I pray this year.
Amen.
Jeremiah 29:11 * Ezekiel 11:9 * 1 Corinthians 2:9
“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the
human heart conceived, what God has
prepared for those who love God…”
– 1 Corinthians 2:9
Something that nourished me recently…
*Let the list-fun continue! :) One of our family practices throughout the year (thank you Traci Smith !!) is to keep a long, paper gratitude list on our kitchen wall. When one fills up, we put up a new one, and then we read the lists together on New Year’s Eve at the end of the year (or as close to it as we can). We did the same thing with the family vision board we made last year, looking at it and realizing a lot of the things on our board ended up being a part of our year. I encourage you to try it this year! You can use some paper, a white board, even post-it notes on a wall where people in your home (or it can be a solo practice) write gratitudes throughout the year. We know that gratitude changes everything, especially us.
*It brought me so much joy to see people wearing ABL art Etsy clothes this Christmas! I’m continuing to experiment with new products and designs, including this plush velvet/soft-fleece-lined blanket I made for my son this Christmas.
*One last “list” thing, but another one that really helped me. I did some writing on what I want MORE of this year, and what I want LESS of. As my little gift to you, I made a simple watercolor download you can print out and use as your own list. (Thank you Erin Gleeson for the great idea).
Ash and Starlight, plus other good things…
* VALENTINE’S DAY PRODUCTS IN MY ETSY SHOP ~ More on this next week, but I have some NEW things on the Etsy site, including the blanket I pictured above, as well as some things for VALENTINE’S DAY. There are pillows, packs of Valentine Cards, and a kids’ shirt that are all perfect for the holiday. I send a portion of each sale to World Central Kitchen which provides hunger relief. You can view the shop here.
*SECOND EDITION OF ASH AND STARLIGHT ~ Find the updated edition of my book here at Chalice or at the Bookshop link.
*MONDAY MANNA ARCHIVES ~ Monday Manna each week is free! Paid supporters of Monday Manna can view previous Monday Manna reflections here, or for the really old stuff, go to my website.
*WHAT DOES MANNA MEAN? ~ Check out an earlier post to learn how this little bit of “daily bread” got its name…
Reflect, dream, and feel yourself carried this week, friends. It takes everything we’ve got — and more — to remain people of vision in these times. I’ll be back next week with my 2026 word. And to each of you…
Love and Light,
Arianne
I love hearing from you! You are manna. Reply to this note to send a message directly to my inbox.
Wonderful words, Arianne. Thank you. God is always doing a new thing…