I followed the crowd, going to cross over services every 31st of December with my goals clutched to my chest, praying fervently that the evils that happened in the year will not cross over with me into the new year, that the new year will bring an abundance of good my way and I will realize the goals I had written down.
The cross over service was usually a jamboree of some sorts, music, testimonies, short plays and then the sermon followed by the word for the year and fervent prayers to ensure the sowing of that word in the fertile grounds of our hearts, finally a celebration heralded by fireworks as we crossed over successfully into the new year.
There were times I didn’t spend the crossover period in church and with the general public but at home or at a resort with my family, hearts bonding, a review of the year particularly what each member did that delighted and offended others, silent prayers and finally dancing into the new year.
I understand the euphoria that ushers in a new year. Sometimes it’s borne out of the desire to escape the disillusionment of the past year and to embrace the innovations promised to debut in the new year. Whatever the reasons, hope is a main factor in our celebrations. The hope that things will change for the better, that elusive goals and prayers will manifest themselves in the new year. But the truth is that for all of us the new year will spring surprises. Some good and some bad. We will all encounter things we never could have planned nor vouch for.
Lately, rather than celebrate the advent of a new calendar year, I have taken to celebrating my birthday because for me and every one of us, that really is the start of our individual new year. If we died today, our stated ages will not be the age we will become in this new year, but the age we were on our last birthday. I have taken to being personal about my life and to having an understanding of the season of life I am in at every turn of my year in order to understand what I should be doing in my new year. I have begun to have a personal word for each year which may or may not run into the next year or couple of years. Sometimes it may align with the word for the year at my local assembly and sometimes it doesn’t, but this approach has helped me forge my path, helped me take my eyes off what other people may be doing and helped me have a focus by which to live out my life.
I am at the stage now where the new year is just another day – significant in its own way, in the sense that for the entire population of the whole earth, we have a year in common but just another day. Apart from that special date, if you think about it thoroughly, there is nothing magical about going into a new year, nothing special either. There have been many new years in the past and many more to come in the present. But I understand the allure of hope and the promise of new beginnings that a new year gives us. It is likened to the excitement we felt as children with each birthday, then we desperately wanted to be older and bigger, mature to do certain things and so looked forward to growing older. We soon found out that even though we grew older in age, nothing really changed, we felt the same inside and steadily disillusionment crept in because in a lot of ways it is the continuation of the old year. In-fact, many times a new birthday reminds us of what we have not accomplished than what we have going for us. Whether we like it or not, the old year does follow us into the new year. The choices, decisions, obligations, mistakes, debts of the previous years do not automatically become obliterated because it’s a new year.
I am at that stage now where I am convinced that the general proclamation of what the year would stand for by my place of worship may not necessarily be mine or some other person’s reality because not everyone is at the same place and season in life, and it is impossible for everyone to have the same experience.
I must say that since I started this practice, I have felt more fulfilled and in charge of my life going at my own pace rather than following the multitude. This is not at all to say that I don’t follow general practices, I do, so far as they do not clash with my individual path.
What’s new about a new year?
Absolutely nothing but the determination to make a new or different start in our individual lives and the truth is that we do not need to wait till the calendar changes before we start that change. All we need is to make a decision to make the change, follow through on that decision daily or frequently and one day we will find that it’s a new dawn for us.
As my childhood friend Kikelomo Ogunlela Anunobi succinctly stated “My new year… your new year has little to do with the change in date but EVERYTHING to do with me…with you…with the thoughts we think, the choices we make and the actions we take. Every new year presents new opportunities…just like everyday does.……A new year brings ZERO magic”
