Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. As an incredibly full and complicated 2018 comes to an end, I wander what the new year will bring. People talk about the first thing you see, say, or do setting the tone for the new year. What will the tone of this new year be? As I normally do on the first of each month, when I have time to write, I start off with “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit”; a personal ritual drawn from childhood experiences of saying that to bring a good month. I finger a prayer rope saying the Jesus prayer several times to get centered, to be focused.

One popular meme online these days is people posting “find the word games” saying that the first three things you see tell you about your coming year. Often, they have mostly uplifting words. Sometimes, they have mostly dark words, and recently I saw one that was nothing but “more books” repeated over and over again. Perhaps, I should make one that says nothing but “Peace, Love, Joy”. I think there is something important there. What we surround ourselves with is what we will see. What we see shapes how we think about the world and how we live our lives.

I look to my left and to my right. On my left is a small table. The first thing I notice is the pile of books. These are books I am reading for school along with a couple books I got for Christmas. I see three icons, some Christmas candy, and some clutter. On my right is the Christmas tree, another pile of books, and various pet toys. I’m not sure what is in that pile of books. In front of me is the living room table. A cellphone, a laptop, a book, some candles, and some candy are on the table. What you surround yourself with, is what you see, and what you see, shapes your life. Perhaps part of the new year is putting away stuff you do want to see and looking at other things differently.

I think about this as I look at my Facebook feed. Facebook tries to select posts that will be of interest to you. How you act on Facebook shapes what you see. You Facebook feed can be an interesting mirror to look at. So, what’s in my feed?

The first post is from a woman of color priest. The second is from a female classmate of mine in seminary. The third is from a different woman of color priest. This is followed by an ad for a church, two posts in religious pages, another post by a priest, and then a post by a neighbor. As I scroll down, I find more priests, seminarians, and some coworkers.

I now turn to my reading for school. For my Preparation for Field Ed class, I’m reading Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change by Mark Lau Branson. In the second chapter there is a list of assumptions about Appreciative Inquiry that seems like it could be good Facebook posts for the coming days. The first one says,

“In every organization, something works well.”

It seems like this is a good thing to focus on as we start the new year. What is working well in the organizations you are part of; organizations like your family, neighborhood, church, job, etc?