New Beginnings

 Happy New Year!

How's it going? We're, uh, 20 hours into 2025... 

So far I've walked 5500 steps. Made a huge batch of soup. Finished off all the raspberry cream chocolates in my condo. Apologized for being insensitive in a (now deleted) Facebook post. Listened to two podcasts (Revisionist History, Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2) by Malcolm Gladwell) with my new noise-cancelling, cordless air pods. (Thank you Max.) Painted a couple rocks with my new paints. (Thank you, Clint.) And postponed washing my hair for ANOTHER day. 

(I will be thanking Drew and Mackenzie for the new lamp to read under when Amazon gets it delivered.) (Yes. Very spoiled this year.) 

In addition to all that, I'm being reflective. Reflective in my thoughts, not my skin. 

Steve sent me this pdf on December 21, and it's been sitting in my inbox, haunting (taunting) me ever since. I started answering the questions last night. Thought I'd post some of my less vulnerable answers here. 

First - the document. Feel free to use it yourself if you have some thinkin to do...

This one's fun:

Things I'm Thankful For (at least 10)...

(Cracks knuckles. Ten? Haha. Hold my beer:)

(Just to be clear, I still don't drink. I'm just using a saying (that was so 5 years ago). I don't think anyone says that anymore.)

1. During a year of so many uncertainties, I'm grateful for the LTD insurance I'd been paying into for such a time as this. All my financial needs were met in 2024. (God probably gets some glory for this as well...)  :)
2. My teensy condo. I walk in my door and breathe deeply; this is home. It's my happy place.
3. A random, but fun, (text) message from God (via someone else) about His ability to use me in the future. 
4. Opportunities to spend time with (and get to know) the new girls in my family during the latter half of this year. <3
5. Jim's cancer journey is over. No trace of it during his last blood test. (I need some emoji's).
6. So glad Hallmark used my suite to film Falling Together. Absolutely loved the close-up look into the entertainment industry. Such an exciting flurry of activity that month. 
7. Book club. Consistently one of my favorite nights of the month. We started our 16th year of reading and discussing books in September... so thankful for writers who write. And readers who like to talk. 
8. Music. This has been a year of much live music. (Not to be confused with Much Music.) Speaking of which, Canada Post, (just before it went on strike) issued two new collectible stamps:

(Yes, I bought a book of them.)

ANYWAYS, from concerts in auditoriums, parks and backyards, to Hymn Sings in old churches and worship events in parking lots, it's been a wonderful year of music. 

9. People; specifically family and friends. So many relationships I'm thankful for. 

10. Unexpected adventures; sand and sun, pools and palms, dinosaurs and dunes, crab catching, wandering down my mom's memory lane, ducks and dots, rocks and walks ... so thankful for them all.

11. Watching a tear-inducing, spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime display of Northern Lights at the lake with Max. 

12. Colours. So glad God created them. 

13. As always, text messages that start with the word "Mom ..."

14. Answered prayer. 

15. Opportunity to pray to Someone who not only cares, but is all powerful and has the ability to answer.

16. Artists. I love scrolling through their work on social media.

17. Actors. Screen-writers. Directors. Producers. Everyone involved in the entertain industry who keeps the content coming. 

18. Fresh air. Clean water. I love them both. Especially when the air is warm and water is cold. How lucky am I to live in a place where both are abundant?

19. Memes that make me think. Or laugh. 

20. Friends who share their wisdom and experience with me. I took a chance asking a couple dozen friends to allow me to ask them (personal) questions. I'd hit a slump with blogging, and needed motivation. SO grateful to the 12 (just like Jesus had 12!?) (Haha) who participated in the first year of my Wise Women series. 

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The rest of the questions in the 2024 Reflection Tool will be answered in my old-school off-line journal. I am not that transparent. 

But it's a good exercise... I recommend taking an hour of so to think about who's blessed you, what's been hard, what changes need to be made, and what needs to be entrusted to God. 

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Lastly, a prayer. 

It's from this book: 

I'll type this one out:

God of history and of my heart, 

so much has happened to me this past year:

        I've known death (Uncle Johnny and Cynthia) and birth (Julia Elaine),

        I've been brave (have I?) and scared (most of January and February),

        I've hurt, I've helped, 

        I've been honest, and I've been less than honest,

        I've broken things (but hopefully not relationships), I've created,

        I've been with people, and oh goodness yes, I've been lonely.

        I've been loyal, I've been betrayed, (sobs)

        I've decided decisively, I've waffled back n forth and back again,

        I've laughed but mostly I've cried. 

You know my frail heart and my frayed history - 

and now another year begins...

Oh God, help me to believe in beginnings

and in my beginning again,

(no matter how often I've failed before).

Help me to make new beginnings:

        to begin going out of my weary mind INTO FRESH DREAMS

                       daring to make my own bold tracks in the land of now;

        to begin forgiving better, quicker, oftener, 

                       that I might experience (and recognize) when mercy is extended;

        to begin questioning the unquestionable, or things I simply 'assume'

                       that I might know the truth;

        to begin disciplining myself (OY. This is THE HARDEST),

                       that I may create beauty;

        to begin sacrificing

                       that I might accomplish justice;

        to begin risking (sigh... )

                       that I may make peace;

        to begin loving

                        that I may realize joy.

Help me to be a beginning for others,

        to be a singer (snort) to the songless,

        a storyteller to the aimless,

        a befriender of the friendless;

to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,

        of assurance for the doubting,

        of reconciliation for the divided;

to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,

        of comfort for the sorrowing,

        of friendship for the forgotten;

to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,

        of sweetness for the soured,

        of gentleness for the angry,

        of wholeness for the broken,

        of peace for the frightened and violent. 

Help me to believe in beginnings,

        to make a beginning,

                to be a beginning,

so that I may not just grow old,

        but grow new

each day of this wild, amazing life

        you call me to live

                with the passion of Jesus. 

Amen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whoa.

It's so much harder to pray those things when you type them out as opposed to simply reading it. 

This is a prayer that needs a miracle to answer it. This business of beginnings is alot. Especially if you're coming at it after a year of none of those things. 

Thanks for reading. 

Hoping this is the beginning (hahaha) of a year of better blogging.

Be nice to yourself, feel your boobs, stretch once in awhile, 

xo