Whenever I see a field I feel the urge to be a horse and gallop thundering through the wide open spaces. The same kind of urge possesses me when I think of the new year. It feels like I am a horse in Wyoming and I salivate at the site of being able to run free through its open, arid, beautiful landscape.

Growing up eating grapes and Macintosh apples was a Christmas season treat. My mother and I would shop for them out on the busy downtown streets. I loved eating 12 grapes on New Years eve and making a list of new year’s resolutions like someone who writes a shopping list. 

Back to galloping. Nowadays, when I think of the prospect of a new year, I am like a horse facing that Wyoming prairie. My mind races with all the resolutions, intentions, promises of new better beginnings.

I will exercise more

I will eat better

I will run more

I will read more

Become a morning person! (Haha!, but I really wish I could.)

I will cook more

make a meal plan

I will pray more

Campaigners bible study?

Spend frugally

Budget (as a verb)

Organize and watermark my photos

Sew!

Farmers market vendor this year?

The list goes on and on…

I realize that it is unrealistic and I kind of like it that way for two reasons. It’s as big as Wyoming and I will never run out of “space” or goals and because they are undefined I cannot really fail . Since I “shot for the moon, even if I miss I will land on the stars”.

The rational part of my brain (it doesn’t get a lot of use) knows that my new resolutions and goals need to be attainable. There needs to be a plan in place. John Piper makes a good argument for it here A New Years Plea:Plan!  But the best advice I ever heard, rather, I recently read, was in Jennifer Slattery Lives Out Loud  blog. In it Donna Jones shares “How to Make Room for the New Stuff God has in Store for You.” In order to grasp something new we must let go of the old. This really resonated with me. Let go of selfishness and embrace love. Let go of *you name it* and then  you will be able to focus on whatever God has prepared for you. This list is infinite.

So tonight we say goodbye to 2018, I am so very grateful for the fields of 2018 I was able to trot through. Now,  I face my metaphorical Wyoming and prep to gallop through it, full force leaving all old things behind in the dust of my hooves. 

Today was full of good.

My usual companion, pain, was MIA. So my closets, cupboards, and laundry are clean. And I danced while I cooked and cleaned.

We celebrated our son’s birthday. 24 years of “ Snips and snails
  And puppy-dogs’ tails” and all other wonderful things he brings into our lives in his quiet way.

And today someone spilled the beans about an elaborate surprise: daughter and granddaughter are on their way to Vermont!!!

Sometimes, most of the time, I take my breaths for granted, but if I stop to admire and appreciate the many little miracles that happen daily it takes my breath away. “He opens his hand and satisfies the desire of all living things” (Psalms 145:16)even when we don’t realize it. Thank you God for the kaleidoscope* of life!

*”…”kaleidoscope” is derived from the Ancient Greek καλός (kalos), “beautiful, beauty”,^[2] εἶδος(eidos), “that which is seen: form, shape”^[3] and σκοπέω(skopeō), “to look to, to examine”,^[4] hence “observation of beautiful forms.”^[5]“-Wikipedia

There is a word bouncing around my brain, consumerism. Like a game of Pong it gets bounced around by different paddles- “after Christmas sales,”I want” “I don’t need” “CHARGE IT!” The day is a wasting and the sales are happening. Meanwhile I think.

There is no end to consumerism. It is epidemic. I feel like a hypocrite when I considerate how upset I get when I see how others hoard stuff and then go buy more. Once when I was shopping at Christmas Tree Shop the cashier told me that she rents TWO! storage units to hold all the STUFF she acquires from said shop. Seriously, who needs that much junk? And then I paid for my purchases…

Although I am not talking about buying food, this verse makes me ponder on my spending practices and priorities:

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Isaiah 55:2

My brain gets it. There is nothing I can buy that will satisfy the longing of my soul. Nothing. “Eat what is good”… This is not talking about my favorite chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies. This is not even talking about kale either. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” He alone satisfies every longing.

I finally heeded the call to try a new challenge, a different way to share my thoughts and perspective. I am no expert. At anything. I do ponder a lot about menial, important and all things in between. I tend to have a lot of conversations and arguments with myself. Perhaps this blog will help me sort out all the voices in my head.

So, December 26, 2018 you are going down in history as the day I started my blog! Every other December 26 has usually been an “unproductive” one. Growing up this day was one to relax, sleep in, eat left overs and play with new toys. Same for when our children were growing up. However, today I cranked up the space heater in my “craft room” and learned how to start this here blog.

I hope to write most days. I hope to share bits of wisdom or happenings in my life. I read somewhere that blogging makes you a better person, I hope it does. I hope that by recording here the opportunities and the life God has giving me will help me appreciate and be more deliberate about making the most of ‘the time set for me and the exact place where He set me to live in’ (paraphrasing Acts 17:26). I hope if anyone reads this they will smile, relate, or be touched in some way.

Peace out, for now.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton