Happy Birthday to me! Happy New Year!

There is something about the fall that to me has always felt more like “New Year’s” than the first day of January.  Simply put, every fall has marked new beginnings, fresh goals, new shoes and school supplies.   My “internal calendar” has always found its rhythm with the school season.  I am not sure but perhaps the biggest reason I have felt this way is because of my birthday.  Each year I use my birthday to mark growth and progress.  I reflect on the past year’s high and low points, remember the adventures and then I look forward to what the next year will bring and what I want to work on.

Some years I am full of dreams and goals.  But not this year. I am working on moving forward (I suppose that is a plan after all!), since I have spent the last few years of Jim’s illness, and especially the past 10 months since his “graduation” to glory, “marking time”, treading water, oblivious that life for the rest of the world has not lost its momentum as mine has. As I reflect on this “still fog”that envelops me, this “undertow” that has threatened to drown me,  I have become cognizant of an increase in my resolve and convictions.  I am more convinced that God is good and in control than ever before. His ways are best. I am certain that God finds pleasure in my faith, however small (Heb. 11:6), that trust is the biggest sacrifice I can lay on the altar of my heart, and that gratitude alone turns suffering into grace.

Happiness is a choice so today I am choosing it. Oh Happy Day!!

By the way I have 3 random observations:

1.  I think I look pretty good for 60! (I am not 60 but I look pretty good for a person that age!)

2. It is critical as you get older to NOT act your age!

3.  In addition to AAADD (Age activated attention deficit disorder) I have another health issue!  I now have dyslexia and I am only 25!