goodness

 “the act of doing good or promoting the well-being of others …”. I’ll come back to this.

But first…

Driving north from Albuquerque to Taos takes two hours or so. Unless you stop for lunch,

and coffee. This Starbucks was fairly new, and I’d not noticed it on previous travels. It was a good stop not only for my Cortado, but the conversation about the words at the entrance. It’s a Tewa phrase referring to the Pueblo of Pojoaque in northern New Mexico, meaning “Water Drinking Place Village”. Isn’t that wonderful?

It was a beautiful drive, culminating with a stop at the Friendship Tree at sunset.

As it was Feast Day of the Epiphany, we decided to go to church. St. James, Taos, had a 7:00 evening service.

It was a beautiful service. One thing in particular was the choosing of a word for the coming year. I had only recently heard of this practice.

Epiphany star words are guiding words which are often chosen during Epiphany church services. The word is then used to focus on one’s spiritual journey for the new year, inspired by the star that led the Magi.

The chosen word serves as a spiritual prompt for the year, encouraging deeper meaning and connection with faith.

We were invited to take a star without looking at the word on the backside. I chose a star, then turned it over.

My word. GOODNESS

For me, I see goodness as showing love, mercy, generosity, fairness and kindness to others. All others.

Here’s some goodness for me this afternoon.