dborys

If you are a fan of my novel, Painted Black, or an advocate for changing the negative perspective many people have of the homeless, I encourage you to check out the book below. It is a recounting of one person’s experiences working with Emmaus Ministries, an organization in Chicago serving those who are often considered the lowest of the low: men who sell themselves for money.

Emmaus was the first volunteer opportunity I was a part of when I moved to Chicago and made a major impact in how I think, feel, live and write. I hope Light in a Dark Place can give you at least a taste of that kind of life-changing experience.

When looking at these men, or anyone for that matter, it is important that we find common ground with them lest we be tempted to judge them. As our minds are filled with stereotypes and presumptions of someone that we know nothing about, it is easy to look at them with disdain. I think we do this to make things easier on ourselves. Their situations help us feel better about ourselves, perhaps even superior. Seeing their lot helps us to forget for a moment the brokenness in our own lives.

via Light In A Dark Place |.

I lean toward the contrary. If something is too popular, I find something else to be a fan of. Don’t ask me why. I like to think it’s because I value individualism and resist being swept up in mob mentality. The truth is it’s probably something less noble, like maybe I’m so narcissistic I can’t bow to anyone else’s leadership. Or something like that.

Whatever the reason, it’s one of the reasons I don’t do anything special for New Year’s Eve usually. (That and all the drunk people on the roads.) I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, and I couldn’t make myself write a blog post looking back on 2011 and/or looking forward to 2012 like so many people are doing,

This December 31/January 1 I even found myself thinking about how pointless it is to use dates as a measuring tool. First off what is January 1 but an arbitrary point in time invented by humans simply as a way to count off time? Why do we even have a calendar that starts January 1 and lasts for 12 months and 375 days? There have been other calendars in history that have been rejected in favor of this model, but what we have isn’t 100% accurate anyway, or we wouldn’t have to have the verse “and in leap year 29” when singing about February.

Secondly, New Year’s eve isn’t even a single point in time. It’s got a point in each timezone. If you don’t want to stay up long enough to ring in the new year in Pacific Standard Time, just watch the ball drop three hours earlier on EST. And how about Down Under where they celebrate a day ahead of our hemisphere? Or Samoa who recently decided to “switch” to the other side of the international time zone because that’s better for tourism for some odd reason?

I see New Year’s Eve as an excuse–a reason to party, to give yourself a fresh start, to shoot off some fireworks, and maybe a reason to look back nostalgically on the past twelve months.

Personally, I find the advent of spring feels like a much more natural time to begin anew. That’s when I feel energized to refresh my life along with my closets, celebrate sunshine and green spikes peeping up from the earth and begin to plan the next few months of my life. I can’t tell you which “date” that will be, but I’ll recognize the opportunity when I see it. It will be something I can hear, smell, taste, and feel throughout my heart and mind. That’s when my new year will begin.