First Baptist Church of Herndon

Good Riddance

Linda Soller | Jan 05, 2015

The New Year festivities have come to an end and everyone is most likely getting back into their pattern. But what did you do with New Years’ day? It’s not a traditional gift giving event. Chances are, if you were social the night before, you slept in on the first morning of the New Year. Once up, you may have watched parades or old movies. There aren’t many days where you can just relax and feel totally comfortable that you are taking the correct course of action. I mean, when you tell people this week that you just laid around and didn’t do much, there will be a nodding of heads and a silent agreement that you celebrated well. If you are in the southern part of the country you probably ate black eyed peas for good luck. I was convinced the tradition was dreamed up by a farmer who wanted to increase sales of the beans he grew which smelled horrible while cooking. I must say that my mother-in-law always managed to dress the beans up, so while still smelly the addition of the universal temptation of fried bacon made the beans edible. Even with the bacon I have always been careful not to eat more than the minimum requirement (one bean for each year of your life, plus one for the coming year). Let’s just say it takes a lot of bacon to mask all the beans I now need to consume. My need for the truth led me to a web site, AboutFood.com, and I found my answer. Here is a quote from the web site. “Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s has been considered good luck for at least 1,500 years. According to a portion of the Talmud written around 500 A.D., it was Jewish custom at the time to eat black-eyed peas in celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It’s possible that the tradition arrived in America with Sephardic Jews, who first arrived in Georgia in the 1730s. Common folklore tells that the tradition spread after the Civil War. The Northern Army considered the black-eyed peas to be suitable only for animals, so they didn’t carry away or destroy the crops.” So there you have it, it was not a subversive farmer. My apologies to the fans of black eyed peas, I am sure you have a good reason for loving them. As for the farmers who grow them, I still think you have something to do with this whole folklore thing.

So you rested and ate lucky food. Hey! It’s the beginning of a brand New Year! Wake up! It’s time to say good riddance to those things we no longer want or need and start fresh.  Why, you ask from your cozy couch or lazy-boy chair. Because it is always better to start at the beginning when you can. So now is the time to cast out the old, the unused, the unloved, and look forward. Personally I clean closets, but maybe you need to clean out old files on your computer, or books on your shelf, expired food products in your pantry, or clutter around your house. Or maybe your clean out for the New Year goes deeper. Maybe there are grudges, or anger, or hurt feelings that weigh you down as you go through your day. Maybe you just need to let go of something that hurts your heart, hides your smile, or keeps you from being kind. When I clean my closet I think of what I never wear, why I don’t wear it, and is there any good reason to keep it. Dealing with the stuff inside us can be managed much the same way. Think about it, you never really use those negative thoughts/feelings productively. You don’t use them because they serve no purpose, but to create more negative thoughts. There is no good reason for keeping them around? So let go, let go and don’t look back. Good riddance to bad rubbish as they say. Shake off that old last year stuff, or the stuff from many years ago, that keeps you from being the person God needs you to be, wants you to be, and can help you become. The stuff that keeps you from being the person you want to be.

I hear some of you now saying it’s not that easy. I had a lousy childhood, I was mistreated, I’ve had bad luck, I won’t give in first, and so forth. Ok, I hear you. It’s not easy, just like it’s not easy to give away things of great sentimental value. They have become part of your very fiber. All the more reason to let go of the negative feelings and thoughts inside you. Don’t let them overtake you. The New Year will likely bring you more than a few opportunities to be angry, sad, or cranky. You don’t need to carry the old stuff with you when you know there will more along the way.  Feel anger, feel sadness, and feel loss, but then let it go. Toss it aside and move forward. Every January first I find myself a bit miffed at the bean farmers of the world, but once I have consumed my obligatory number of black eyed peas I let it go. I say good riddance until the next time. I can’t be bothered, there is a New Year just waiting to be lived!

Have great week and a Happy New Year!  :o)    Linda