A New Year's Resolution: To love both lightly and tightly

Had every intention of writing something marking New Year's Eve 2012 -- but between watching the paint dry on the "#fiscalcliff" saga and fighting off a pesky head cold I've run out of time, energy and steam all at the same time.

So ... in lieu of something orginal from me, let me commend this lovely, thoughtful, feels-really-true-to-me piece on Love & Grief by Deanna Vandiver ... which says, in part:

The truth is that life is mystery, change is constant, control is a figment of the human imagination. When I can be present to the truth that nothing is promised – all life is gift -- then despair has a harder time getting a grip in my psyche. Each involuntary and thoughtless breath is amazing, is unearned and unearnable. Grace, by another name.

Years ago, I read the words of Anne Lamott, “I do not understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.” “Ah,” said my soul. “Yes!” My source of hope lies in that mystery. I trust the universe to be endlessly creative, to be rife with paradox, to seek generativity. Life will! In the most inconceivable places and times and situations, life insists most creatively and assertively. And death will too. Two sides of the same coin, much like love and grief.

And so, I live holding all that I love lightly and tightly. Lightly enough that it may take its own path, tightly enough that it never doubts my love.

It is a spiritual practice.
It is a daily struggle.
It is a daily joy.

To risk loving both lightly and tightly is the only resolution I'm making this year. Happy New Year, All!