Dear 2010: don't let the door hit you on the way out...

Have to confess...I am not sorry to see the end of 2010!  I definitely had many wonderful and joyful times over the past year...but I also spent many a day feeling adrift, uncertain, exhausted.  When I think back on the year just ended, lyrics from a Grateful Dead song come to mind: "what a long, strange trip it's been". 

But with the promise of a new year open before me, I continue my long, strange trip with hope in my heart, and faith that the Spirit is present in every step (and misstep!) I take on this journey...the twists and turns along the way invariably lead me to new understandings of myself, of my relationships with others, of my relationship with God.  When the way is obscure, I am learning to let go of my need to see exactly where I am going and "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Finish every day and be done with it.  You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

~ Seneca