The words, “Happy New Year,” come so easily. My intent is good. I do really hope for much happiness for you or for whomever I’m greeting. Yet, there is a little catch that happens in my spirit as the words come out of my mouth. I know all too well that each year is filled with a mix of happy and sad, wonder and challenge. So what does it mean when I wish someone “Happy New Year,” and yet understand that no one has a perfectly happy year awaiting them?
Yes, my intention is good. I would love for people to have a delightful and happy year the whole year through – and some years really are filled with much more happiness than sadness. There are also the years filled with more difficulty than delight. And as the first days of January unfold, someone may already know that the next year is going to be a challenge. While I’m sure that they will take my bubbly “Happy New Year” in the spirit intended, I also imagine their internal voice saying, “I’m not sure it will be happy.”
So, maybe there is something better I could wish them as the year starts. Perhaps my New Year’s greeting could acknowledge the truth that no year is perfect, and that joy and sorrow, delight and difficulty are always intertwined as we move through life.
That’s where the word “blessed” comes in. Blessed (pronounced as one syllable or two (bles-sed)) has a common root with the word “bliss” and does reflect that wish for happiness for someone. But it has more layers and depth of meaning. It’s roots are in the Latin word, benediciere, which means to consecrate, to worship, to express praise and gratitude and to make holy. That takes a wish for the New Year to a new place.
Blessed New Year! Blessings for 2020! With those words, I am inviting the year to be made holy, to be a precious time, a sacred time, a time of gratitude and thanksgiving. I see it as inviting the Holy to be part of the New Year, acknowledging that the Divine is present in the midst of the joys and the sorrows, the difficulties and the delights, the wonder and the challenges – all that the New Year holds.
For awhile, I tended to avoid using words like “blessed,” not wanting people to be put off by my use of language that sounded too religious. But I’ve claimed the religious language back, for appropriate moments. I’d much rather offer someone a deep prayer and wish of Blessed New Year, than a wish of Happy New Year that seems to downplay the realities of life.
So, I’m tending to use Blessed New Year more often this year. There are still times when Happy New Year fits better, but I want to claim and proclaim my faith in a God who is with us, a God who is present in the joys and sorrows, a God who loves us unconditionally and intimately knows and shares all that happens in our lives.
With my prayers that you will know and discover God’s presence with you in the next 366 days (it’s leap year!),
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