Champagne Breakfast 2014

I got a text this evening from a friend saying, “This morning was so good. It blessed my tender, tears-at-the-ready soul.” She was referring to Champagne Breakfast, and though the words are hers, I am shamelessly stealing them because they speak my heart as well. Brunch on New Year’s Day with a handful of friends purposefully reflecting for a moment on the past year and putting words to hopes for the new one is a such a wonderfully lovely way to begin. Yes, there were ready tears for sure, but I’m sure we laughed as much as we cried.

We tried to answer three questions (What can you celebrate from this past year? What can you let go of? What do you hope for in 2014?). I don’t know if it was particular to this year or maybe just true of life in this broken world, but I was struck by how each story of celebration (the question we started with) had with it an element of tears as well. Our stories of celebration are so because of the words that came up so often as well: restoration, redemption, reconciliation, grace. Without those words, those truths in our lives, our stories would simply be ones of sadness and failure and shame.

Snippets of the morning — words of truth and wisdom and parts of these ladies’ stories that I didn’t know before — have played in my head all day, and I am challenged and filled with gratitude and hope. Welcome, 2014!

A sampling of our collective celebrations, lettings go, and hopes:

To being reconciled to a life of rich blessings
To owning our stories
To restoration and to redeeming our stories
To mysteries unveiled
To coming full circle
To remission and God’s grace
To quietness and contentment
To gracefully giving up hopes/dreams/goals that don’t fit right now (or anymore)
To walking with the Lord daily and being content with where he has me
To rejoicing
To opening our hearts
To leaning into what God has for us
To better health and more restoration
To letting go of distance
To the 3 Cs: connectedness, clarity, and confidence
To reaching out in spite of “not normal”
To hope and peace and joy
To letting go of fear and trusting God to carry us
To letting go of self-consciousness
To transformation and the renewing of our minds
To ever-increasing attentiveness to His presence

It occurs to me just now as I write this that today marks ten years since the first Champagne Breakfast, and the first time in a new place. Both of those things seem worth noting. And the snow? Yeah, the New Year’s snow was pretty much just magical.

3 Comments

Sarah M · January 1, 2014, 10:28pm

I just love that there is this community, and this tradition. Seeing your sweet community gather and honestly share encourages me, and helps me grow, too–to never stop pursuing community even when I don’t feel like it or can’t find it.
Sarah M