Facing a New Year

I stand here at the edge of a new beginning. 12 months behind me filled with laughter and tears and 12 new months ahead of me, filled with the wonder and worry of everything new.

What will this year hold for me? Will it bring bad or good? Will it disappoint or will it change my life?

Where will I be at this time next year…..the unending questions are enough to drive anyone crazy. The worries crowd out many thoughts. If this is a new beginning, then where should I be going? Worry of disappointing those I love echo in my mind. What if this New Year is not all that I hope it to be?

I could be standing at the door of a new adventure, or standing at the door of a year just like all the others. What will it be? I suppose it will what I make it. And where God leads.

 But in this time as the start of a New Year is still fresh, this is a time to reflect on who we are, and who we wish to be. We could change that. The New Year holds the promise of a new start. Where anything is possible and for a brief few days, it feels like we can dream bigger and greater things than we ever have before. How are we going to change the world?

By the time next week rolls around, I might feel like I felt last January a week in. As if nothing has changed, as if the New Year holds nothing new, only days filled the mundane and normal. But what if I didn’t let it? What if I choose to make this a year that is unforgettable?

That question, in itself, is scary. Could it really all come down to a question I challenge myself with? If this is going to be a year where I step out of the boat and onto the water, I need Jesus to be guiding me.

In a way, I need this year to be different. I need this year to be an adventure. I can’t let myself live anymore in the mundane. But which door is the right one to take? Will this New Year show me?

So as I stand here, I pray. I pray it will be different. I pray for that door. And I face 2012 with hope, apprehension and excitement.

What is this new year going to hold for you?

A few of my favorites from 2011....

So thematic theme 117 at Written Inc. , is your favorite pictures of 2011. 2011 has been a beautiful year of change for me and I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store. Here are few of mine, as we look back at the year:

These first two remind me to slow down and enjoy the beauty of simplicity.

Not only are these some of my favorite snapshots of the year, but each picture represents something different to me. Each has a certain memory. And each is a small piece of life, so that when I look back at them, I can recapture the beauty and joy all over again. We can't stop or slow down time, but having photos are the next best thing.

Have a Happy New Year Everyone!

On a Journey

We're all searching. We're all trying to get somewhere.

Is life more about the journey, or more about the destination? Or maybe a little of both? This journey that we call life is always moving, never slowing, never stopping. We're constanly climbing hills, descending stairs to climb back into the sunlight once again.

So what's my point? I forget that life is happening NOW. I always think that I'll start truly living life once I get that job, once I start traveling, once I get married, once I- the list could go on forever. I'm constantly looking to the future waiting for a day that may never come around. I forget that life is now, life is living in those inbetween moments.

I'm a reader. I love reading. Blogs, stories, novels, biographies, anything. Except maybe historical fiction... Anyway, I come across incredible writers that can bring to life thoughts that you never dreamed were possible. But I never stop to think that they all started with just a pen in their hand, facing the same blank screen that I stare at, waiting for words to come. I think that maybe when I could write like them, then life will really start. When I finally become somebody, life will then be the adventure that we all wait for. I don't think that Jesus only meant life to be lived AFTER we get a degree. After we get a pay raise. After....No, He's given us a new life. To be lived. Now.

We're all striving to BE someone. To meet goals, expectations and dreams. I feel like maybe we're really missing what life's all about. Life is made up of a thousand steps, all carrying us onto to our final destination. We forget that life is living in those little moments that we think don't really really matter: Doing the dishes, washing the laundry, driving to the store. They may not be the adventure that we always thought that life would be, but they all add up to something so beautiful and so moving that it could only be called a journey. I don't want to get to the end of my journey and realize that most of it has passes me by while I waited for "life" to start.

"We plan our lives in long, unbroken stretches that intersect our dreams the way highways connect the city dots on a road map. But in the end we learn that life is lived in the side road, alleys and detours."
Miles To Go by Richard Paul Evans

Let's stop dreaming about when life will start, and let's actually start living it.

"Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through stations: being alive, it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind. Whatever we have been, in some sort we are still."
C.S. Lewis