Hello there, friends of Unity Joy of Life! 

Well, there's a quiet truth that many of us are learning again and again and again. Both my hands are up. 

This is one of those truths I've got to keep coming back to. The truth is this, and I hope you take it into the new year. And the truth is this: Your reaction is your burden, not the situation, not the person, not that moment that surprised you, disappointed you, or even hurt you. 

What weighs on us is our reaction that we keep carrying through, maybe through the new year, maybe through the new years as in plural, maybe we've been carrying stories around for a very long time. You know, one of the most fascinating habits I find about the human ego mind is that it insists on carrying things that no longer exist. A moment happens, and then it's gone, right? But what we do, what we say, what the human ego mind says is, “I'm still upset about it!”, right? Our reaction — we cling to it, it's almost like we hug it, we enfold it. 

But upset about what exactly? The past is not here, the future hasn't arrived, and yet we carry both around as if we are carrying heavy backpacks there. We just stuff them in the back of our backpack, and we carry that around through life. We have these stories, these victimhood stories that we just share with people. 

The situation itself happened in a particular time, a particular place — it arose and it disappeared. But the reaction, that's something we rehearse, that's something we replay, that's something we retell, we enhance. I've been guilty of enhancing my stories, and in doing so, we give life to something that would otherwise have faded away quite naturally. 

So the question isn't, “Why did this happen to me?” The question is, “Why am I still carrying it around?” 

In 2001, there was this woman who walked into my office, I was the minister in Denver, Colorado. She was in her 80s, and oh, she came in, she was so distraught. She's telling me this story about her husband that left her for another woman at the age of 80. 

I'm thinking, “Oh my God”.  I asked, “When did this happen?” And she told me that the story that she was telling me about happened in 1984. 17 years! 17 years of being upset, 17 years of being the victim, 17 years of continually reacting every single time she retold the story. 

My friends, imagine leaving the moment exactly where it occurred. 

Not pushing it away, not clinging to it, just letting it be what it was. Just stop feeding it. And what isn't fed, just eventually dissolves. 

So perhaps today, as we start to get ready for the new year, you might experiment with setting down what you've been carrying. Take an inventory, maybe an inventory of where you react or where your reaction has been, because remember, your reaction is your burden. Leave the past where it belongs. 

Rest in the present moment, because right here in the present moment — it's pretty spectacular. In the present moment, there is only God, and just trust in the unfolding that God's got your back. I promise, if you do this, you will start 2026 with great peace. 

Because peace is not something that you find out there in the world. It's something you just allow. It's in this present moment. It's something that is present right here, right now. 

It's the moment that you choose not to react, but to just be in the presence of God. 

So here's the bottom line, or maybe what I would say the final question:  When you let go of the reaction, where did the problem go? 

Happy New Year, my friends. 

Until next time, I'm keeping the faith for you. 

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