Today in our calendars the New Year 2016 begins. What is it promising? Everything and nothing. Wrap yourself in the kindness of the promising of everything and nothing and charge into the new year.

If the New Year were to promise something specific, too much can get in the way.  We promise something will happen, but so much else will also happen and in many cases the promise will be crowded out of the happening.  But the promising…there is the kindness.

The Latin root of the verb to promise is to send forth. Promising takes the kindness the present holds and offers it to the future. Whether it appears in the future or not is not about the kindness in the promising, it is about the circumstances in the future.

This kindness of promising is not about the promise to do the dishes. In that case, the kindness is in doing the dishes, the fulfillment of a promise.

When someone assures me that I can count on them for the presence of the truth, beauty and goodness only they can offer, so that I might flourish, my future feels secure, trustworthy, harmonious, vibrant and empowered. They have promised. And I wrap the kindness of their promising around me as I take my next breath.

But if I cling to a future event as proof of the kindness, I am languishing until the promise manifests and it may never manifest.

Promising gives an image or dream of a kind future to the recipient.

If we only validate the simple kindness of a promising by it’s fulfillment in a wildly complex future, we are foolish.  Promising is a desire to send the importance of everything and nothing into the future. Nothing is freedom. Everything is love.

So much can get in the way to thwart the intention living in the promise.  But we cannot let this harsh reality negate the kindness in the promising.

I want to always be grateful for the kindness living in the promising, to see every promising as full of kindness.  Then I don’t need to wait to see if the promise appears as a reality in the future before I feel its kindness.   

In the beginning was the Word…the promising of everything and nothing…the Cosmic Kindness.

Every newborn is the promising of everything and nothing…a cosmic kindness.

Tonight send promises of everything and nothing into the coming year.  Feel the kindness and let your next breath flourish.