Today’s find: Artificial

Just for kicks, thought I’d kick off the New Year with some Artificial Intelligence.

And now, having seen the output/result, I’m thinking I surely will have to keep doing my own blog-writing in 2025.

Or perhaps, Dear Reader, your opinion on that matter might differ from mine? ChatGPT is certainly faster than I am: the machine spit out 500+ reasonably coherent words in less than five seconds. Still, I’d say there’s something missing from its attempt at imitating me…and my semi-regular love-notes to you.

See what you think (below), if you’re already really bored on this first morning of the New Year. Or just scroll down to the bottom of the AI-generated post, for an alternate (and time-tested) way to begin this new day, and new year!

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You said:

write a “happy new year’s” blog post in the style of withusstill.blog

ChatGPT said:

ChatGPT

New Year, New(ish) Beginnings: A Reflection on Time, Change, and What We Leave Behind

Happy New Year. Or should I say, Happy New(ish) Year? Because, let’s face it, the passage of time isn’t quite as neat as the calendar would like us to believe.

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, there’s a temptation to dive headfirst into the idea of “fresh starts.” We scroll through endless lists of resolutions, each one promising to make us better, faster, thinner, more efficient. We buy planners that seem designed to answer our need for control, each page an invitation to mark a new beginning.

But here’s the thing: the world doesn’t suddenly reset on January 1st. Neither do we. The truth is, we bring everything with us into the new year—our habits, our unresolved feelings, our baggage. We don’t magically transform into a better version of ourselves simply because the calendar has flipped. There’s no divine permission slip for reinvention.

Still, I can’t help but feel a kind of quiet optimism today. It’s not the flashy optimism of New Year’s Eve parties or champagne toasts, but the quieter kind that whispers: “Maybe this time, I’ll try a little harder. Maybe this time, I’ll learn something new, let go of something old, or just get a little more comfortable in my own skin.”

Time, in all its unyielding march forward, has this way of making us confront ourselves. We can’t outrun it, though we can try. And try we do. Each year we vow to be different, and each year we stand, unchanged and unchanging in some ways. And yet, in subtle ways, we are always transforming.

Take a moment today, not to plan what you’ll do differently, but to ask yourself: What did I learn this year? What do I want to leave behind, and what do I want to hold onto?

The new year doesn’t make us different. We do. We do it in small moments, in the pauses between the rush. Maybe this year is about embracing that quiet transformation. About shedding the need to be perfect and instead, just being a little more present. Maybe it’s about finding grace in imperfection—allowing ourselves to fail, to rest, to be messy.

Whatever 2025 holds, it’s already here. And if we stop long enough to look around, it’s already starting to unfold. Maybe it won’t be the year we’ve planned, but it’ll be the year we get, and maybe that’s enough.

So here’s to the new year, in all its imperfect, messy, and beautiful uncertainty.

May it bring you quiet growth. May it bring you more questions than answers. And most of all, may it bring you the kind of peace that comes from letting go of the need to be anything other than who you are, right now.

Happy New Year. Or should I say, happy new(ish) year.

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Here I am again, John, writing in my own hand. And I am moved to think about Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, who marked the restoration (Luke 1:79) of his gift for speaking by offering a prayer of blessing. I thought I’d share a portion of that blessing with you now…to help us all get this New Year off to a proper start:

In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS