Both the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar and the secular Western calendar are full of opportunities to start over.
The months of late winter and early spring bring us Lent.
These 40 days invite us to hit the reset button, giving up unhealthy habits and mindsets or relationships that keep us from living life to our fullest potential. During Lent, we have a chance—year after year after year—to reconnect with the joy and simplicity of living life as our authentic selves.
Springtime brings us Easter.
The miracle of the Resurrection invites us to remember and carry in our hearts the redemptive power of love. If death itself is no match for a Creator who loves us, how can lesser stumbling blocks—the missteps and poor choices of daily life—stand in the way of our growing into exactly who and what and where we were always meant to be?
Each season brings us a solstice or an equinox.
These days mark the four points of the year at which the Earth concludes one quarter of its journey around the sun and enters into the next portion of that journey. Each lengthening of day or night invites us to leave behind routines or beliefs or fears that have not supported us as we journey towards our authentic selves, replacing them with healthier supports as we embark on the next portion of the journey.
The end of summer brings us Labor Day, which is, in the United States, conventionally linked with the start of a new school year.
The conclusion of summer and the anticipation of new things to be learned, new friends to be made, and new ideas to explore invite us to celebrate the not-yet-known. We ponder all of the new and wondrous experiences waiting for us to discover, and we are filled both with hope and with inspiration to explore our inner selves and our world, growing in wisdom, grace, and authenticity.
Late autumn and early winter bring us Advent.
Like Lent, this solemn period of waiting invites us to hit the reset button, preparing our hearts for the coming of the Divine. We take stock of all that which lies in our hearts, pondering what the Christ Child will find upon His advent, and tweaking relationships with Creator, self, and others as needed to build a space of true joy and hospitality.
Dark December brings us Christmas.
Christ’s Nativity invites us to reset our understanding of the Divine. The Creator of the Universe has become not just a baby, but a baby of astonishingly humble origins. If the Alpha and Omega can remake its Divine and Eternal Self, becoming a humble and time-bound human baby, what is there to stop us from remaking ourselves into the joyful, contented, and fully human humans we were always meant to be?
Gradually lightening January brings us the New Year.
This annual commemoration of bidding farewell to the old while welcoming the new invites us to recognize that starting over is always an option. Time, as we perceive it, is an infinite cycle of chances to hit the reset button, to start over, to try again, to maybe get it “right” this time around the sun.
It’s almost like the Ancient of Days wants us to have endless opportunities to get up (metaphorically or literally), dust ourselves off (metaphorically or literally), and try again. And again. And again, knowing—if only we are humble enough to see it—that the great I AM wants us to be
- content
- joyful
- in harmony with
- unafraid
- loved
- and confident that we are loved.
It’s almost like our Creator wants us to simply BE: to be without the shame of failure or disappointment weighing us down, without fearing what will happen if we don’t get things “right” this time around.
What will happen if we still don’t get things right this time around?
A fresh start will roll around again, offering
- contentment
- joy
- harmony
- security
- love.
If only we have the humility to see it this time around.
– Lori Randall, at the start of the new calendar year, 2026
Click here for a song to inspire you as you ponder the infinite cycle of opportunities to start again.
This is a good summary reflection on new beginnings and starting over. I recall one older person, upon being asked how she was doing, replied “I’m still here.” Pretty basic. Of course, “older” is a relative term. Each time we wake up and put our feet on the floor, we can think about “What God and I will do today,” according to the old saying. Each day is a new beginning. Happy New Year to all!
Thank you for steps / points of pause for renewal. Renewal is constant and ubiquitous in time and place throughout the universe, in our lives we should expect nothing different. Thank you for the music – I’ve listened to it twice and will return to it.
One of my most beloved places of renewal are the trails of St Anthony Spirituality Center.
Thank you Lori for this meditation and beautiful music to start the new year of 2026. Happy New Year !
Well done Lori
New Year’s is an arbitrary construct. To me, what you listed is much more meaningful. Ultimately, just my opinion, the best time is always “now”.
Thank you so much, Lori, for this profound reminder that we can always start again. ” Begin again” was the favorite saying of venerable Bruno Lanteri, the founder of the oblates of the Virgin Mary. Here is a quote from him:
“Say then with boldness, “Now I begin,” and go forward constantly in God’s service. Do not look back so often, because one who looks back cannot run. And do not be content to begin only for this year. Begin every day, because it is for every day, even for every hour of the day, that the Lord taught us to say in the Our Father, “Forgive us our trespasses,” and, “Give us this day our daily bread.”