Gratitude Haiku for 2015!

New Year's Day:  another year begins.  What are your spiritual goals and intentions for this year?

If your resolution is to have a more spiritual life, or a deeper spiritual life, you are not alone.

But what does that mean?  More prayer?  A retreat?  Discernment about life shifts?  Putting more of your efforts towards the service of God's vision?  Increasing your giving by 4%?
I have a blog post up at the Living Lutheran site which suggests a different spiritual practice for the coming year:  the gratitude haiku.  It's a variation on some tried-and-true spiritual practices, practices like keeping a journal, keeping a gratitude list, being more observant, weaving the arts into every day life.

Here are some quotes to whet your appetite:

"As the old year careens relentlessly toward the new year, you might be thinking of the resolutions you want to make. Perhaps those resolutions will help you change your body. Maybe you’re hoping to pick up a good habit or two – hopefully to replace those bad habits. Maybe you’ve even made some spiritual resolutions."

"The practice of gratitude journaling is one I've come back to periodically. You might have done it too – at the end of the day, write down five things that fill you with gratitude. There’s no doubt that it's a powerful practice. But I want to be honest. When I've kept this discipline for any length of time, my gratitude lists begin to seem quite similar. As always, cultivating a quality of mindfulness does not come naturally to me."

I wonder what it would be like if I wrote one per day, each and every day this year. I suspect that at the end of the year, I’d be a much different person.