As a kid, I learnt how to write using a slate and chalk. Prone to mistakes as a young writer, the slate suited me well! I was never afraid of making mistakes as my slates would wipe clean with very minimal effort! Well this contrasts heavily with my kid today. The little guy uses my walls to practice writing. Most rooms in my house today bear as scars those chicken scratches-like writings on the wall! Today he is high on those artistic disasters, tomorrow he may not be proud of what he’s done. I have reserved a particular wall of ‘fame’ in his room so when he grows up a little he will see how he has by his own hands defied his own sacred place! Because his writings are on the wall, there is no wiping them clean for now!
On the other hand, a slate wiped clean is a miracle! An opportunity to start afresh! A second chance after a first opportunity has been shattered! Like a tethered kite, torn apart in the hurricane, yet dancing and tossing in the eye of the storm! Set free by the same storm that ripped it apart! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! After the storm comes the calm. Like the fire weed, gasping for another go at life from around the ruins of a fire. It uses the ruins of the same fire that destroyed it in the first place to spring back into life – embracing its second chance. At the end of the tunnel, there is light. In life, just like at the sea – no matter how far away you are from the light house, if you see its light you will get home. Your light house is this New Year- your clean slate!
Every new day, every New Year in the land of the living is another clean slate – a gift given from above, a chance to start again, a miracle as bright as the day, an opportunity as real as success itself, and a dream as real as reality. This brand new year is worth more than a stale decade. It is all you need to rewrite your story. From day one, take charge. Stand up and be counted! This could be the year! All your dreams, stale and new, will take wings and light up of the skies of fulfilment. God has given you a gift of a new beginning, so put it to use. Take a deep breath and start again! Remember not the former things; I will do a new thing, He promised! To be part of the new things the Lord will do, you have to truly embrace your new slate!
The thing with a clean slate is you shouldn’t keep it blank. Start to write history again, one line at a time, one moment at a time, one day at a time and it will turn out a year well spent!
