“I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

Edward Everett Hale

Sunday, 3 February 2019

Looking Back, Looking Forward

This week's quotation, by Winston Churchill, is ambiguous. "Je weiter man zurückblicken kann, desto weiter wird man vorausschauen" Which being translated, means: "The further you can look back, the further you will look ahead."


But it reminded me of filling in my Year Compass, on New Year's Eve. This is a lovely spiritual practice, which my friend Linda introduced me to, some years ago. You download a little 20-page booklet, from Year Compass, It is a wonderful free service, started by a group of Hungarians, which has now spread round the world.

The first half of the booklet invites you to review the past year, remembering significant events, places and people. Prompts are offered e.g. "The wisest decision I took" "The biggest surprise of the year" and "Your three biggest accomplishments" "Your three biggest challenges". Done mindfully, it takes a good couple of hours to complete.

The second half of the booklet (pages 13 onward) is for planning the year ahead. You are invited to "Dream Big" and to identify "magical triplets" e.g. "Three things I want to achieve the most", "These three things I will have the power to say no to". Again, done mindfully, it takes a while to complete. Finally, you are invited to choose a word for the year ahead. Mine was "wholehearted". And to share your secret wish.

It can be done in a group too, at church or chapel. I keep this year's booklet in a pamphlet file on my desk, and look at it every so often, to remind myself of where I've been and where I hope to get to. So perhaps I've been taking Churchill's advice all along ...

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