Happy New Year !

I absolutely love all the promise that a new year holds. Really, a new anything is nice. Think of the idea. A new book the first time you open it up...the sound of the pages opening up to be read, a whole new concept or story to explore. Or a new house with its fresh paint, clean baseboards, and spaces waiting to be neatly and creatively filled. Or best of all a new baby... all bathed and ready to be loved and so full of life and promise for the future.

Today we all celebrate having a fresh start...a brand new calendar year for us to fill with learning new concepts, writing our own stories, cleaning up, getting creative with and organizing both our physical lives and our spiritual lives, and loving God and those around us. Everyone longs to get something right in the new year, to resolve to do something better. We want to try to eat right, to exercise, to be better at our jobs, to be more patient and consistent as parents, to be a better friend, to spend and save our money more wisely, to master whatever it is that is our weakest attribute.

The truth of the matter is however, that we are all human. We are going to make a mistake, some of us sooner than others, that sullies our fresh new outlook. The real difference will be made in our lives when we realize that in every moment we have a choice to start over. God designed it that way...his mercies are new every morning. So let's set our goals to be better in 2009, but let's not get discouraged at our failures along the way, but remember what they say and fail forward, continuing on our journeys to make this year better than the last....and every moment better than the one before!

So Happy New Year to you!