the chalice of your life

Each day, the first day;
each day, a life.
Each day we must hold out
the chalice of our being to receive,
to carry, and to give back.
It must be held out empty...
                            - Dag Hammarskjold

For several weeks now this quote has stuck with me, with its image of our life being something like an empty chalice that we hold out each day. It seems a fitting quote as I begin to fill blank pages and lines in my fresh, new day timer. In fact, I made the decision to write this quotation just inside the cover of my schedule book. 

It isn't the first thing to get written on those pages, however. For several weeks now I've been filling in lines on the calendar with all sorts of events that have already been scheduled for 2013. The cusp of a new year is a rather arbitrary delineation, and the plow of life keeps forging ahead without pause!  Each entry on each date consists of a few words: a name, a place, a particular time. Nothing of much consequence at first glance, simply an appointment that has been scheduled and is meant to be kept.

However, each one is an encounter, full of possibilities! What will I bring to each one? A cup that is full-to-overflowing with my assumptions, prejudgments and agendas?  A cup with maybe a bit of room but mostly full of stuff I'm eager to pour out on those with whom I am committed to spending some time? Or, an empty cup, one with lots of room to receive and to also give what only God can provide?

This day is the second of January, the second day in the first month of a very new year. It is also the first day, and a life unto itself.

Author of All,
expand our hearts this day,
that your Word of Love may be 
written anew through our lives.
Amen