Now

It's the beginning of a new year.  2013.  Hard to really wrap my mind around the idea.  Not only that 2012 has flown by, but that 2013 is now the present.  This is not a new feeling really.  Just the specific numbers for the years have changed.  It's a feeling I have every year.  I know that New Year's Eve is supposed to feel monumentous.  (I guess the word is actually momentous.  I don't like that as much, but I have already learned something new in 2013 and I guess that's a good thing.)  But for me, the beginning of a new school year is more like New Year's to me.  The school year has been the cycle of my life for almost every year of my life.  Hard to break that connection to new beginnings.

Enough about that.

Happy 2013. May it be a year of blessings.  A year of laughter.  A year of memories and relationships with friends and family.

I've spent time over the last month mulling over what my word for 2013 would be.  One that I thought about was abundance.  And while it is true that I want to celebrate the abundance of good things God gives me (and I will continue to do so through my list of gifts), another word has continually crept into my mind.    It's come up in conversations.  It's come up in things I've been reading.  And it has swirled through my mind.  It's NOW.  I want to live in the gift of NOW.  Not the past, although memories are a great gift and can bring comfort and joy.  Not the future, although planning and hope are not at all bad things.  But the NOW.  Being in the moment and really being present in my life.  "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."    Psalm 118:24  

Over the course of this year, I want to become better at rejoicing and being glad in the day.  Better at taking advantage of the gifts of each day.  Realizing that that can mean quiet days and busy days.  It can mean so many different kinds of days.  Each one being a gift of its own with offerings of its own.

A few more gifts to add to the list:
1544) bringing in the New Year with family and friends
1545) 2 beautiful girls wanting to share some funny scenes from the movie they watched
1546) a peaceful day with a sister
1547) pizza
1548) falling asleep to the sound of quiet chatter in the room next door
1549) quiet contentment in the morning
1550) time to reflect on the new year dawning
1551) knowing that we don't go alone into the new year
1552) knowing that we don't go along into each new day
1553) celebrating an uncle's birthday with him
1554) new books to discover
1555 - 1570) time with family

1571) My dad - who took all these pictures - but isn't in any of them.

1572) gerbera daisies