A Fervent Wish: Happy New Year

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." {Edith Lovejoy Pierce}

Many of the last several years in our family have been hard. There have been multiple surgeries, severe chronic pain, stress in all shapes and sizes, etc… But at the end of all of those years, I've been able to honestly say, “This year was a hard year, but it was a good year.”

Tomorrow begins 2013, which causes me to reflect on the year of 2012. While good things have absolutely happened this year, while there has been great joy, I have to admit that overall, 2012 has been one of the most difficult years of my life. 2012 has tested every part of me.

I’m happy to be wishing 2012 farewell. I’ll take the good memories into 2013, so many of them stored neatly in the spiral-bound books I filled this year. I’ll take the lessons and the strength of character it gave me. But I don’t want to look back on the bad.

I pray 2013 is kinder and gentler.

Tonight I will be cozy in my living room, with Christmas tree lights and my husband. We will eat cheese & crackers, drink sparkling juice, and watch movies. At midnight, we will kiss and mumble our way through Auld Lang Syne like we always do. We will say "Happy New Year!"

I dearly hope it will be happy, for our family and for yours.