Some years ago, I read that a survey of some people led to the suggestion that January 10 is the gloomiest day of the year. I don’t know the type of survey or the numbers involved, but it seems quite arbitrary to me. I don’t know why that date typically would be any gloomier than a cold cloudy day in February or a foggy and rainy day in March.

Such things, it seems to me, are a matter of perspective or perception. January 10 might be a sunny day, with bright reflections off new snow. It still might be filled with good thoughts from the recent holidays.

On these pages over the years, I am sure there have been many reflections on our perception of winter, or of January as the start of a new year, or a time to quiet down in a more peaceful manner after holidays that were too busy and hectic. Each approach is a matter of perception including some very individual judgments about how days and seasons affect us.

These articles on the St. Anthony site are sometimes called “reflections.” That is a good and important word in our personal and spiritual lives. Its roots can mean to “look back” or to “look again.”

To reflect, or to look again, can be a very important behavior as we view many things. We have recently been through Advent and Christmas Time. It is good for us to look again at this season and the various feasts of the season. We have been through them many times, but in each year, we look again at their meaning for us. Our sense of perception of these things changes because we have had new experiences over each year. The same would be true for other seasons and feasts of the Church Year.

Then there are the scriptures. We have heard many Bible passages hundreds of times (depending on how old we are). And yet we are invited to look, and look again, at what the Bible has to say to us, again based on whatever experiences we have been through. At Christmas we have read again the simple story of Joseph and Mary coming to Bethlehem, the story of God coming to us as a baby born in a barn. We look, and we look again, and see new implications about immigrants and poor families and hospitality.

As people of prayer, we look again at our lives as we spend time in prayer and contemplation. We call ourselves back to each new present moment as life goes on.

Looking out at our world, we look again and again at current events. This has been a strange month in terms of world events. I am writing this a couple of weeks before publication, so who knows what might have happened in the meantime? But as I look again at some of the actions of our government, I see things that I as a Christian and a citizen do not approve of.

So, I look, and make a judgment. How do I respond?

So, going back where we started, to see one day either as the brightest or the gloomiest seems a bit narrow. We can have many perceptions of many things, and so we keep looking, again and again, keeping ourselves open to awe and wonder, to happiness and sadness. We continue to walk through the winter of this year. I hope your winter is not too gloomy!

– Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.