New Year's Day

I'm joining the probably millions of other bloggers posting their New Year's musings today. Sorry about that! There's just something about new beginnings that inspires imagination and hope in hearts made weary. The excitement and anticipation of the new, the turning away from the old---sometimes with feelings of regret, sometimes with relief. It's a day that brings out the wordiness in already wordy people!

I feel the sparkle and the energy just as much as the next person, but even so, I've never been much for New Year's resolutions. No matter how good my intentions are in January, my resolutions always deteriorate like crumbling autumn leaves as the months pass by. Not this accomplisher's cup of tea, that. 

At the same time, being only three years away from official middle age has given me fresh determination that each day, each month, each year be lived to the fullest. I don't want to look back on 2016 with regrets that I merely drifted through my days aimlessly, or even worse, spent them waiting for "something" to happen. A new job, a new hobby, a new plan, a new boyfriend (Who am I kidding? ANY boyfriend!)---they're all nice ideas, but not worth wasting this year waiting for.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

Dale Carnegie

I read this today on Facebook, that purveyor of all things philosophical and wise. I want to smell this year's roses, whatever they may be. So, in my effort to live this year intentionally and with purpose---while at the same time avoiding the depressing pit of failed resolutions---I am collecting mottoes and themes that I want to take into my new adventure. Thoughts that I want to inform and guide my decisions and attitudes throughout the year.

So far I have two.

And given my track record with memory, even those are doomed to be forgotten shortly if I don't write them down. Hence this post. Really. It's more for me than for you.

       Not my will, but Thine be done.

This is my motto for the year. I don't know what 2016 holds. A few weeks ago I had some tentative plans for the course of my year. But now, a few doctor's visits, some medical bills, and an ongoing medical condition later, some of those plans will need a little revision to say the least. 

I don't know if God's future plans for me will be the dramatic---a missionary in a foreign field who gives aid to helpless children and also collects lots of foreign cats, or the mundane---a gracefully? aging retail worker who loves Jesus and also collects lots of cats...and dogs...and cats...and more cats and more dogs. 

Maybe 2016 will be the year I meet the future Mr. 

Or....let's go with the odds here...maybe not. 

No matter what this year holds, whether ordinary or extraordinary, I want my life to be lived for His will, not my own.

What would you do if you weren't afraid? 

Easily make decisions I do not. I tend to worry over the simplest things, not sure which is "right". I also tend to avoid things I'm not good at because...well, I'm not good at them. Life is too short (especially when you begin to realize you've already spent such a substantial chunk of it!) to let fear dictate direction. This year I want to challenge myself to do the thing I would do if I weren't afraid. Big or small, I'm feeling fierce. Bring it on! 

Disclaimer: The actual levels of fierceness contained in the above statement may not be discernible to the naked eye. 

2016. A new year. A new adventure. Whatever it holds, whether happiness or grief, a hard path or a joyous one, it will be a good year if God walks through it with me.