Each new year brings new beginnings. One of the most significant things we do as the dawn of the new year approaches is to make new year’s resolutions. The determination to keep to them and make profound changes in our lives fills us with hope and excitement. Those initial energies galvanize us to start well, do all the right things, and stay focused on the goal.
As the year goes by, excitement and high energy begin to wane. While some try harder to stay the course and check as many boxes as possible on their New Year’s resolution list, some may completely throw their hands up and abandon the beautiful resolutions they made at the beginning of the year.
Reflecting on the dynamic of New Year’s resolutions and the commitment to stay the course as the year unfolds, the image of the Bricklayer comes to my mind.
At the onset of every building project, the ultimate aim of the Bricklayer is to align the blocks on top of the other, to create a whole structure. With excitement and hope, the work begins. But as soon as the Bricklayer starts his work, a block is suddenly out of the line, even after taking the extra care to use the plumbline to nudge the block in line. What he/she does with the block is equally as important as what he/she does not do to the block. The Bricklayer does not in frustration abandon the project and break the “non working” block to shreds; rather, he/she carefully lifts it off the platform and puts it aside. In it’s place, another block is lifted, placed on the platform and the work of reaching the construction goal continues.
Having bid goodbye to 2024 and ushered in 2025 with our New Year’s resolutions, may we reflect on the dynamic baked into the work of a bricklayer and see how that patient endurance could offer us clues on how to stay the course, not give in to frustration, and make our New Year’s resolutions work.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Fr. Charles Onumaegbu
Chaplain for the Deaf Ministry
