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Transcript

Taking Stock of the Year · Infinitely Precious

• 0:00
  intro: Welcome to the Infinitely Precious podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
• 0:12
  James: Hello, beloved. It's good to be with you today to remind you of how precious, how loved you are, and what a gift you are. I don't know about you, but I can't believe it. We're here. We are on the last day, of the year.
• 0:33
  And that time of the year when we begin to, look to next year and ask questions about resolutions and other kinds of things. One of the things I've been reflecting on recently myself is the year that we are coming to that's coming to a close, 2024. Now we all know the calendar is a construct. It doesn't exist as some absolute reality. It's the reality in which we have chosen to live.
• 1:04
  But every 365 and a quarter days, you and I get the opportunity to reflect on what gifts, this current year has brought us. What has 2024 taught you? What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about the world? You know, as, as we've talked about before, as spiritual beings have a human having a human experience, what does it mean?
• 1:35
  What did being human this year teach you about your gifts, about what you bring, to this human experience that no one else can bring quite the same way you do. It's always good to take stock. Now as a person who follows the path of Christ, this is, we we have our own, Christian constructed, calendar. And beginning on December 25th and running through January 6th, more or less, there are 12 days of Christmas. We're in that in between time where we get to look at the gifts.
• 2:27
  Christmas is often a time where we celebrate gifts. We get to look at the gifts. So, you know, just to think about it for a moment, this year, taught me more of my limits, which is a good thing to know. Being human, being finite, and and, having a certain number of skills that that fit me, and then a whole another set of skills I don't even begin to have, it invites me to choose how best to use the ones I have while not, you know, feeling sad or, grieving the gifts I wasn't given. Instead of being sad about who I'm not going to be, I could celebrate who I am.
• 3:25
  So having looked at some of my limits, having looked at, what I bring to the table, I can begin to think about during this 12 days of Christmas that spills over into the year 2025. As I take stock of the gifts that I already bring to the table, can also begin to ask the questions about how best I might use those gifts. What are my intentions for the gifts I have in the coming year? So ask yourself. I invite you to ask yourself.
• 4:01
  No. It's not 2025 yet, unless you're watching this or listening to this at a later point. But even then, it's never too late to kind of take stock of what the previous year has taught you about your relationships, about your connection to the divine, about your connection to yourself, about what you think about yourself. Are you still busy beating yourself up because you're not the person you always wished you would be instead of celebrating the person you already are? Uh-huh.
• 4:40
  And I think too many of us get caught in doing that thing, beating up the person that we aren't instead of celebrating the person that we are. So you get this opportunity. I'm taking this opportunity on the last day of the year to reflect, to ponder the gifts of the year. Some of them are about my limitations. Some of them are about my gifts.
• 5:09
  Some of the places where I saw my gifts make a difference in someone's life, including in my own. What is it that I want to bring to focus? Now that I know more about who I am and the gifts that the year has given me, what will I do, to focus in on those gifts in the coming year? To really do my best to be sure I'm sharing them in in the way that they were meant to be shared. And so, as we come now to the close, and no matter how you celebrate that, maybe you'll be up late tonight ready to toast the new year when it arrives.
• 5:56
  Maybe you'll be going to bed at 9 o'clock and hoping you're not awakened by all the fireworks in your neighborhood. I don't know. However you celebrate this end of the year, take a moment to celebrate the lessons this year has taught you. Take a moment to celebrate the gift that you are. Be thankful.
• 6:24
  Practice gratitude if you wish. I have some friends that practice, frustration as well. They have a frustration list they keep. Not afraid to share the things that they're frustrated that didn't happen, that aren't what they wish they were. You know, you can do with this time what you choose to do with it.
• 6:49
  It is a gift. It's a gift to you, as you are a gift to all of us. And I'm a gift to you. And we could just go on and on in a circle. How will you celebrate yourself?
• 7:02
  How will you celebrate the gifts that this year has given you, the things that you have learned about yourself and the world on which you live? And, knowing those things, how will you, ground yourself, fully right now as you prepare moment by moment to fully be present so that whatever comes, you can live into the intentions you've set for yourself. So, December 31st, the last day of a calendar year. What will you do? How will you see yourself?
• 7:50
  Take a few moments and do just that. I'm inviting you to do that anyway. Remember always, always that you are infinitely precious. You are a gift. And you are unconditionally loved.
• 8:13
  You are an irrepeatable person. There has never been, nor will there ever be another you. There'll be people perhaps that bear your genes, that have borne your genes, that in some way look like or do some of the same things you do, but no one who will ever be you. So you, the gift that you are, don't denigrate it. Just practice giving it away, celebrating it yourself.
• 8:48
  And, the next time you hear from me or see me, it will be the new year. So I wish you all the best, and I hope you will find, that taking an inventory, a fearless inventory of the mistakes, of the gifts, of what the year taught you, will offer you the opportunity to move forward, leaving the year behind, the pieces that need to be left, and carrying forward the pieces that ought to be focused on. Until the next time, all the best, my friends.