New Year...New Start

In my family, New Years Eve was just another night. Never were there riotous celebrations or late night affairs. We would saunter out of our respective bedrooms to watch the ball drop and then retire to our dens in solitude for the duration of the night.

Last New Years Eve has been erased from my memory; my father was clinging to life in a hospital hundreds of miles from my home. 2009 was ushered in with uncertainty, but it slowly became a year of progress. As the following 12 months marched on, new opportunities began to present themselves, and impossibilites became realized. First, my father made a miraculous recovery and finally made the move to North Carolina. Jason and I soon quit our employment as restaurant servants, and we returned to a simple life, a life that brought us time together with our children.

As a lark, I had applied for financial aid. I desperately wanted to return to school, but I never actually believed that it was possible. The whole registration process is a memory that now seems obscured. Looking back, I cannot remember a point that I clearly decided to start school again, yet I did. And without realizing it, I actually completed the semester with a full-time 4.0 GPA.

The children have had a fabulous year. They finally have both grandparents around to spend time with, and trips to their house bring them so much joy.

I have learned many spiritual lessons this year also. To begin with, I finally realized the the previous generations don't understand scripture anymore than my own. They are just as helpless as the generations that follow them. Purging my life of ritual and habit has not been a delicate procedure, for it more closely resembles a full body heave. Standing for truth often lands a person in the line of fire from friends and family...and their judgments soon abound. It is a painful process, but it has left me with a clear impression of who my true friends are...and for that I am grateful.

So cheers to a new year, a new decade. I have spent the last ten years with the man I love, and we have changed in so many ways that I hardly recognize the young couple who walked down the isle together so many years ago. We are a couple of travelers, and I am so glad that we get to walk the road of life...hand in hand.