Where everybody knows your name

One of the "uses" of the new year (if we're going to look at it as a thing, and as a thing who we measure by its functions) is as a time of self-reflection. What we have done. Who we have wronged. What challenges have been met. How we can serve ourselves, our families, our communities better.

Go inside and seek our unspoken thoughts.

I am not someone who has to be told to go inside. I could be accused (by myself) of often living inside. I am such a regular guest inside my own head, they have a cocktail waiting for me in front of my bar stool when I arrive.

If you have prayers that float your boat, great. Everyone's relationship to all those things that could be labeled "faith" is, of course, different. What is most useful and resonant to me is mindfulness. Take a law and use it for what it reminds me to be aware of: kindness, justice, peace for all other living beings - all in practical ways that sound significantly less floaty and foofy when one stops eating animals and pretending not to see homeless people. It is not about divine pronouncements, as written by men. I think traditions can be equally functional on multiple levels.

So in these days where I spend hours in services with family, not particularly paying attention though still participating, it seems wrong to follow the advice of taking these days to go inside. If this time is supposed to be different or special, going inside does not make it so. I could use those days to stay out of my head by being further engaged in the service for those few hours. That seems like a false solution, though.

Perfect practice (of any kind) isn't my goal.
But.
If I'm going to maintain that I celebrate these holidays, something more functional has to emerge. Or else, it's just one more moment to press the "reset" button - something we can do at any time, anyway.

Happy new year - may you all figure out what you want to use it for.