Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Year! A Recap and a Look Forward [like everyone else].

I tried to write haikus for 2013 and 2014, which I've done the past couple of years.
[2011/12]
[2012/13]
This year I realized that there is too much to say than can be said in a 17 syllable poem. And that's ok.

2013 was filled with epic moments. Welcoming a new soul into our family. Saying farewell to an anchor of our family, and helping him along the painful journey Home. Starting a new job and launching into ministry life with all its demands and woes.

It was also filled with many small moments, both joyful and frustrating, exciting and boring. Tasting beer in the best of Bruges' pubs and biking along Amsterdam canals. Snuggling lots of friends' babies. Dinners made and not photographed. Laundry washed and not folded. Plants long dead still in the windowsill. Hurts and miscommunications. Friendships developed and revived. Fights and forgiveness.

Balboa Park with friends, Oct 2013

Another year of marriage held together by the grace of God and his love for us invested in each other. I am continually surprised (why?!) that 4.5 years of marriages hasn't cured E and I from irritating or wounding each other. But we keep getting better, little by little, at loving. At saying I'm sorry first. At saying (and meaning and choosing) I love you, sooner. It is a joy to be his wife.

When I look back on 2013 I see all of the things I wish I'd done, and all of the things I did. Moments I didn't write about and I wish I had. There is the good and there is plenty of bad. This year, like all years, has been bumpy, but it has been full of rich blessing.

Open
For 2014, I'm praying for an open heart. Open to changes to our schedule and lifestyle because of E's work as a pastor. Open to living with less and being content with what we have. Open to sharing our resources with others. Open to changing my expectations and allowing God's and others' priorities before my own.

Here's to a year of being open. It's gonna get messy.

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