In January — with the fresh start it brings — so many of us are focused on setting goals, planning, getting organized, and doing other structured things in an effort at improving ourselves and our lives.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
But it’s also important to remember the deeper, underlying things this is all in service of. And also that — as hard as we might try to make it that way — life isn’t always so orderly. (I know. I’ve tried for years!)
There’s an inner life in each of us that doesn’t always cooperate with our ego-driven plans. And the larger currents of life sometimes carry us in directions we didn’t plan or want.
So as I thought about a theme for this month, I wanted to choose something nuanced. Something that would complement the new year’s work we’re doing, but also remind us to pay attention to the meanings, patterns, and possibilities that are a bit deeper and messier.
A “doorways” metaphor felt like the perfect fit.
Doorways mark transitions. They’re an opportunity to step into something new, and to leave old things behind.
And yet there’s often a difference between an opening or closing of a door in the outer world versus what might be going on in our own hearts and psyches…
Sometimes we step through a door — or try to — and yet continue to live in the world we left behind.
Sometimes we try to shut something out — or hide away some part of ourselves — and end up living smaller as a result, cowering behind the barricaded door.
Sometimes we choose the wrong door. We go through the one that feels familiar, or the one others expect us to enter. And then we end up regretting the door we never dared to open.
Or, just as painful, sometimes we dart between too many different doors — so frozen by “fomo” that we never fully enter a single space to discover the depth of riches within.
So yes, we’ll do some structured things together this month — reflection, planning, and goal setting.
But at the same time, I invite all of us to pause frequently to pay attention to what’s swirling in and around our doorsteps — the kind of things that may be harder to pin down, but are perhaps even more powerful than anything our rational minds alone can plan for us.