Nature and the New Year
- Alysia Miller
- Jan 23
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Jan 2026 Issue No.13
HONEST LIFE | SLOW GROWTH | DEEPLY ROOTED
Artist Jonathan A. Anderson relates that the first marks made on the surface of his painting were those of the fountain of light blue oil paint. A representational image was then painted around
those initial marks, depicting a fountain in an anonymous garden. There is only one layer of paint but two orders of mark-making: one corresponding to the flatness of the canvas and one corresponding to the pictorial volume of the garden.
From https://ccca.biola.edu/advent/2025/the-fountain
Fountain (no.1)
Jonathan A. Anderson
2012
WELCOME
Welcome to Invitations. My deep hope is that this monthly newsletter will serve as an invitation to consider ideas, practices, and images that will enrich your life. I hope you’ll find fresh perspectives on living a honest, spiritual life, deepening connections between God and others, and permission to grow slowly.
“BUT YOU CANNOT CONTROL EVERYTHING. ALL YOU CAN DO IS FACE THE WORLD WITH QUIET GRACE AND HOPE YOU MAKE A SLIVER OF DIFFERENCE. YOU MUST TRUST THAT YOU BEING THE BEST POSSIBLE YOU MATTERS SOMEHOW. THAT BEING AN ATTENTIVE AND GENEROUS FRIEND AND CITIZEN WILL PREVENT A THREAD OR TWO OF THE SOCIAL FABRIC FROM UNRAVELING.”
—BRIAN DOYLE
TO PRACTICE
THESE ARE NOT NEW QUESTIONS, BUT PERHAPS THIS NEW YEAR IS A TIME TO REFLECT ON WHAT GOD IS GROWING IN US:
1. WHAT SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES ARE YOU BEING INVITED TO CULTIVATE TO KEEP YOU CONNECTED TO GOD?
2. WHAT PRACTICES OF SELF CARE DO YOU NEED TO ATTEND TO TO NURTURE YOUR BODY AND SOUL?
3. WHAT CORE RELATIONSHIPS DO YOU NEED TO SUPPORT YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY?
4. WHAT ARE THE GIFTS, PASSIONS, AND BURDENS WITHIN YOU GOD MAY BE INVITING YOU TO EXPRESS FOR THE BLESSING OF OTHERS?
“FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND, THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM.” EPHESIANS 2:10
“SONNETS TO ORPHEUS, PT II, XII”
RAINER MARIA RILKEWant the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.
NATURE AND THE NEW YEAR
It is interesting to me that our New Year happens in the middle of winter. The year starts, for us in the northern hemisphere, when the dark is the longest and the days are the coldest. The crocuses have not yet made their appearance, there is not the burst of new life.
It reminds me of the Jewish practice of Sabbath, where their set-apart-day, the Sabbath, actually begins the night before. It seems to say that we begin in darkness, in quietness. We begin with rest.
Quiet rest gives me a chance to listen. In the stillness I find I can hear inner longings whispering, as they are not often loud or boisterous. The quietness allows me to take a step aside and ask, what is it that I am paying attention to?
In fact I need the quiet and the still, the cold and the dark. Without them, I find myself caught up in the whirl of the new and the next best thing. That is not to say I don’t long for fresh buds on my crab apple tree or the refreshment that comes with signs of new life. It’s January, and I’m already day dreaming about what seeds to plant.
But as I listen to the wind howl and see the dust and dried up fall leaves swirling, I’m reminded that not all of winter is snow falling softly in a quiet wood. The wind blew out all of our freshly filled bird seed from the feeder. There’s a harshness that comes when the temperature lands at -10 or when the winds blow at 50mph.
Could this be, as well, the condition in which new life springs forth?
I can acquiesce that this is true, but it is another thing to live it. There is a certain amount of consenting that needs to happen in order for new life to come forth. I have to release the idea that I can control when and where growth takes place. When a seed falls to the ground, it lays there for a moment. It gets buried, cracks open, and then the roots start to grow. And all of this happens in the dark.
Will I consent to be the seed over and over again? What nourishment will my roots reach for?
I don’t need to know the answer, but I can reach for what will increase the amount of faith, hope, and love that will flow through me.
I am finding myself sitting with gratitude for the view of leafless trees out my window, and the reminder they bring: even in the newness of 2026, good work is happening even when I can not see it, and it doesn’t start with me; it starts with God hovering, and me resting.
A TREE BY ANY OTHER NAME:
BEFRIENDING YOUR BACKYARD SYCAMORE CAN CHANGE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NATURAL WORLD.
Read here>>
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/beauty/a-tree-by-any-other-name
Katelyn Beaty invites us to consider how listening to nature, part of the general revelation of God, is a pathway to true wisdom.
But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
Or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
Or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature
And the breath of all mankind. -Job 12
Why your pro/con list isn’t working
and what to do after you make one
In this short episode that’s really an invitation to practice reflection, Emily P. Freeman asks 5 questions that will help us consider how we make decisions. listen here
In this episode, Emily talks about a “life energy list.” She asks us to consider what brings energy and what drains energy as a regular practice. It’s important to note that this is only one part of the decision making process. Sometimes our deeper desires, those desires that come when we love the Lord our God with all of us, require us to do the dishes or to volunteer for that event, even when we don’t consider it life giving.
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