How Do You Catch a Cloud and Pin It Down?

Yesterday, while hiking in the mist and fog, the sounds of water were everywhere. Trickles and drops gave percussion to the melody of rushing water. My feet squished and sucked through puddles and streams until my shoes soaked through and my toes pruned with wet. Water gives life, it moves and carries with it whatever it meets.

Time flows forward and we are called upon to enter into the new year. Like water, we carry with us what we meet even as the day is new.

On the hike, I found myself singing over the babel of the water, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" from The Sound of Music. Do you remember that song? To refresh your mind, here are some of the lyrics:

How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
She is gentle! She is wild!
She’s a riddle! She’s a child!
She’s a headache! She’s an angel!

This is all of us - angels and headaches at the same time. This is life too - a delightful hike but the feet are too wet. A wonderful new day or new year, but the body aches and the heart feels stressed and anxious. Sometimes we don't need to solve all of the problems because life, like Maria in the song, is unsolvable, beautiful, and bigger than we can pin down. Like water, life flows on and on, shifting, changing, and carrying us forward.

May your 2023 be filled with many moments where the struggle is released

May your 2023 be filled with compassion and clarity