Winding Down

And so another year is coming to a close. This year seemed to go so quickly. Time has certainly sped up as I’ve gotten older. The unpacking and packing away of the Christmas decorations comes and goes in record time. My little granddaughters are becoming my grown up granddaughters. My daughters are now mothers; and when I look in the mirror I’m not sure who that woman looking back at me is, the woman with all those wrinkles and laugh lines. There’s no stopping it, time marches on, and every moment matters.

This Saturday night I will wait up for the New Year. I’ll spend the evening with family, as I have always done, eating and drinking and playing games. Close to midnight we’ll pop the corks on several bottles of champagne and ready the glasses for toasting. Gathered around the television we’ll watch the ball descend on Time Square and shout out the countdown along with Dick Clark and the crazy sea of humanity packed into the heart of New York City. Finally, we’ll raise our glasses, kiss our loved ones, and head for home—2011 just a memory, 2012 still a promise.

What will the New Year hold? If history is any clue, then I will say goodbye to some wonderful people, welcome new life into the world, watch happy couples walk to the altar, smile while babies are baptized, walk on sandy beaches and delight in the ocean’s song, wipe away some tears, laugh till I cry, and maybe accomplish a small part of my well-intended resolutions. However, history has also taught me that mostly it’s a good thing that I don’t know what the future holds. It’s that not knowing that makes every moment so special, so important, and so valuable.

I remember the New Year’s cartoons from when I was a little girl, the old man holding the hour glass and turning it as he hands it over to the New baby Year. Time, that’s what New Year’s means to me. A New Year of moments, memory making, challenges, opportunities, loving and living, seconds, minutes, hours, and days to live God’s plan for my life. I’m praying the coming year will be a great one for our family and all of our friends. I’m looking forward to getting to know that woman in the mirror a little bit better and hoping she adds more laugh lines than wrinkles in 2012.