Birds flying high, Sun in the sky,
Breeze driftin' on by… you know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me
And I’m feeling good.
Nina Simone’s iconic track from 1965, Feeling Good, is a real favourite of mine. Its filled with soulful longing for a new dawn, a new day, a new life. It’s the perfect start to a New Year! Disillusion, disease and often despair signalled the end of 2021. We all know how hard things have been and the troubles we still have to face. But this song connects us with sources of solace in the natural world around us:
Birds flying high, Sun in the sky, Breeze driftin' on by Fish in the sea,
River running free, Blossom on the tree.
No one can take these things from us. They are our birthright as children of earth. The birds flying high, the sun in the sky are there for us all to enjoy. In times of lockdown so many discovered the deep springs of hope that arise when we connect with the earth beneath our feet, when we appreciate the simple pleasures of sea and sky, God with us in and through his creation all around.
You’ve made it through to 2022. Congratulations! And we are people of prayer and of hope. Prayer and hope are acts of defiance in a world of sleaze and despair.
But this old world is a new world
And a bold world, for me
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me
And I’m feeling good.
A prayer for the new year
God of our pilgrimage,
we are a thirsty people in a dry and weary land.
Strike our stony hearts afresh,
restore your springs of life within us.
Renew us by your Holy Spirit.
Let streams of living water
flow through all your Church for the healing of the nations,
for the blessing of the earth
and to the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
