Lovely way to frame our lives, but I’m living with my wife and her Alzheimer’s dementia. Her past, sometimes even the last few minutes, is fraying, parts being lost completely. Which means that big parts of our shared past are no longer shared.
This wisdom might need to include another chapter where we walk from moment to moment paying attention mostly to the fleeting present.
I’m discovering all that yet remains in this impermanent now. Beauty, kindness, touch, breath, gratitude, trust, possibility, to name a few. Angels dancing on the head if pin.
Beautiful reflection, Steve. I am sending you deep care - walking with your wife through Alzheimer’s has to be so tough. And what an important observation you’ve offered here. Walking moment to moment. Yes.
Thank you, Rev. Cameron Trimble, for this meditation which names what Watch Night has always held, even when we forget the language for it.
Your reflection gives us a way to speak about wisdom without nostalgia and courage without bravado. Walking backward into the year refuses the lie of the blank slate. It honors memory, cost, repair, and restraint as moral disciplines, not emotional baggage.
What struck me most is the insistence that the future is not something we dominate, but something we meet in relationship, guided by what we refuse to abandon. That is leadership language. That is covenant language. That is Watch Night truth.
For those of us stepping into 2026 with clarity earned rather than optimism borrowed, this feels like an honest posture: eyes on what has been lived, feet steady enough to take the next faithful step.
Lovely way to frame our lives, but I’m living with my wife and her Alzheimer’s dementia. Her past, sometimes even the last few minutes, is fraying, parts being lost completely. Which means that big parts of our shared past are no longer shared.
This wisdom might need to include another chapter where we walk from moment to moment paying attention mostly to the fleeting present.
I’m discovering all that yet remains in this impermanent now. Beauty, kindness, touch, breath, gratitude, trust, possibility, to name a few. Angels dancing on the head if pin.
Beautiful reflection, Steve. I am sending you deep care - walking with your wife through Alzheimer’s has to be so tough. And what an important observation you’ve offered here. Walking moment to moment. Yes.
This beautiful New Years meditation brought to mind this poem by William Stafford https://grateful.org/resource/the-way-it-is-william-stafford/
What a fascinating way to look at it! We can’t help but walk backwards into the future .
Thank you, Rev. Cameron Trimble, for this meditation which names what Watch Night has always held, even when we forget the language for it.
Your reflection gives us a way to speak about wisdom without nostalgia and courage without bravado. Walking backward into the year refuses the lie of the blank slate. It honors memory, cost, repair, and restraint as moral disciplines, not emotional baggage.
What struck me most is the insistence that the future is not something we dominate, but something we meet in relationship, guided by what we refuse to abandon. That is leadership language. That is covenant language. That is Watch Night truth.
For those of us stepping into 2026 with clarity earned rather than optimism borrowed, this feels like an honest posture: eyes on what has been lived, feet steady enough to take the next faithful step.
Just one thing: it is enough, thanks!