Named

Still thinking about this upcoming year, or should I say the year upon me now, and about resolutions and change, I am inspired by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience. She writes about naming the year. It is a wonderful read.

And it made me start thinking about all the questions and ramblings I've scratched into my journal over the past two weeks. The desires and hopes in black ink on white paper. The ideas following me throughout the day keeping my heart busy in hushed prayer. As I read, I questioned,

Is there a name for this year before me?
A way for me to both mark and plan time?
Is there a word, or two, that will encapsulate all that I have been marinating in during this time of end and beginning?

And what of the last year, was there a heart cry, a longing waiting to be called forth, to be given word?

There are many words I have been mulling over in this middle ground of end and beginning:

order, routine, peace, discipline, rhythm.

Words that set my heart and focus my mind. Words that hold hope and potential and poetry. Oh, I want my year to have poetry, to possess beauty, to be more than plan and organization and steadfast perseverance and willful stubbornness to accomplish a list of goals. More than self-control--let that be the fruit of the year not the method to make it through!

All that said, from my list, I have picked a name for 2009

Rhythm.

More than order and routine, rhythm implies presence and peace, discipline and joy. Rhythm is a word to be shared as this year is time to be shared. Rhythm hints at the sacred.

So as I seek to grow ever closer to Him to gifts me this time and to mirror His Son to my world, may my life be ever filled with the rhythm of the sacred, the presence of the Spirit.