Creating a Brighter 2024

As 2023 comes to a close and another new year begins, our minds often turn to resolutions and ways to improve ourselves and our lives. While we usually approach these commitments from a physical perspective (losing weight, exercising more), there are also spiritual, mental, and emotional resolutions we can make that can lead us to a brighter future.

For instance, many of us carry a lot of baggage around. Not the physical kind, but old resentments, fears, or disappointments that drag us down, sapping our joy. Wouldn't it be great to let those burdens go? Well, actress and humanitarian Jennifer Garner has an idea to help you do just that. During an interview with Allure magazine, she recalled a sermon that she and her family heard in their church when she was a child: "Our minister talked about taking something hard that had happened and imagining yourself going down to the banks of the river and fashioning a beautiful box out of what you find there, placing this hurt carefully in the box, and watching it float down the river. The power of letting go. Don't carry it. Just let it go." Garner concluded, "So many times, my sisters and I have said, 'You need to put that in the river.'"

As the new year approaches, consider putting your old hurts in a metaphorical box and sending them down the river. I's the perfect time for a fresh start full of hope and promise.

Maybe you want to start the new year with a greater focus on gratitude. After all, it's a sad truth that many of us don't realize what we have until we lose it. But Father Luigi Maria Epicoco believes that it shouldn't be that way. Writing for the website Aleteia, he explained: "People who are in good health don't appreciate it until they get sick. People who have food every day don't notice the importance of food until they're hungry."

Father Luigi continued, "Why do we have to wait until we've a bad experience in order to take seriously the good things that are present in our lives? Having a life of faith means not waiting for a tragedy to decide to be better people. Having faith means not seeing God, but seeing all the good that He puts into our lives in a hidden way, and living with a life-changing gratitude that makes us better people."

Living with gratitude is also a way to become happier - and happiness was the theme of a story that was shared frequently on social media recently. It read: "A professor gave a balloon to every student in his class to write their name on. Then, he asked them to throw it in the hallway. The students were given five minutes to find their own balloon, but no one was able to do so. "The professor then told the students to take the first balloon they found and hand it to the person whose name was written on it. Within five minutes, everyone had their own balloon. Finally, the professor said to the students, 'These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for their own. But if we care about other people's happiness, we will find ours, too.'"

One final thought. You probably know The Christophers' motto is, "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." That's a wise philosophy to adopt at any time of year.

This essay is this week's "Light One Candle" column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers