Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!

I'm spending New Years Eve alone at home in my comfy clothes this year.  Lucy is my only companion and she's curled up in a donut on her bed ignoring me, napping in the peacefulness of the evening.  Years past, I would have been heartbroken not to have had social plans, feeling like an outcast that I had nowhere to go.  Friends invited me to their house for the celebration tonight but in actuality I wanted to be home this year, even if that meant ringing in the new year alone.  Perhaps it's the personal growth that's been taking place in the past year that has made room for this quiet contentment.  I have no plans of becoming a hermit but I am grateful to be in this space at this season of my life.  There is peace now where there was once great anxiety.  The peace I feel in my heart is thanks only to God for His good work.

It is this peace that makes me grateful for 2010.  A new home church for me and this excites me to have a local community to build my faith and grow my understanding of Christ.  The friendships I am developing are really special and I am thankful that so many of my prayers have been answered.  Thank you, Lord!  I have been blessed with travel to Poland, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego.  Traveling inspires and invigorates me so having the opportunity to travel overseas again was a blessing.  I managed to fit in a trip to Auschwitz which was sobering and humbling to witness.  Checking it off my life list!  I volunteered for a bakesale to raise money for Haiti and was honored when the organizer wanted to use two of my photographs on a popular website to document the event.  I watched my niece and nephews grow tall, one of them turning 1 and discovering that his legs will let him walk and run.  Proud auntie, I am!  It's been a year full of creativity from cardmaking, photography, baking, and so much more my life is feeling quite full.  Even blogging has introduced a unique creative outlet for expression.  My year ends with a special visit with my family and remembering all that this past year has brought me.  More personal growth and a lot of love.

On that note, I wish all of you a very Happy New Year.  May 2011 bring you joy and new adventures to a better life.  In the meantime, just be.  Be in the moment.  Enjoy now!