Winter Battle

Drill Sergeant Winter has his way. . .
He sweeps in amidst an entourage
Of frosty air and bone-chilling temperatures.
He barks out orders to the ranks of fallen leaves,
Marching them across frozen plains
In perfect formation
To the cadence of January winds.
Occasionally the army of leaves gets caught in a cyclonic battle,
Swirling into the air as the skirmish
Escalates.
The cold, gray days of battle and marching in formation
Seem unending,
Until finally the batallion of leaves is left
Frayed and in disarrayed piles
As the war ends
And the wind dies
And winter surrenders
To spring

Welcome 2010

It is New Year’s Day. The beginning of a new day, a new year, a new decade. I’ve lived through 42 New Year’s Days, and each one has been different, with different accomplishments, struggles, and things to look forward to. I wonder what this 43rd year will hold for me. What will I do with it? How will I use it? I don’t want to have any regrets – I want to use it up and extrude every bit of life from it there is to live. New Year’s Resolutions. . . .sometimes they get a bad rap. Perhaps you’re one of those who says, “I never keep them anyway. . .what’s the use?” I think there is a use. I believe in the power of new year’s resolutions. Think about it. Every successful retail businessperson knows the value of taking inventory. You look at your stock: the things that sold well that you need to make sure you reorder; the items you thought would sell, but didn’t; the items that served their purpose, but their time is up; the seasonal items. You look for the things that need to be thrown out, put on clearance sales, reordered, etc. And while our lives are not retail merchandise, the principle still applies. We need to examine our lives (and our possessions) and see what is broken that can be fixed, or if it is unfixable and needs to be discarded. We need to take stock of all the good things in our world that we should give thanks for and make sure we nurture those things. It is a sort of “cleaning house”, but not so much the physical items, but all the emotional, mental, psychological, too. What is healthy – what do I keep? What do I toss? But it’s also about orienting ourselves. A ship with no anchor is tossed with the tides. A teacher with no objectives is not very effective. A person without goals is just going through the motions. We need goals – objectives, purpose – in order to be effective human beings. It is not enough to sail through our days. We need to live them with purpose. I read a lovely (fictional) book this summer called Twenty Wishes. The ladies therein were in different stages of their lives, but they inspired each other to create a list of twenty wishes – and they each approached it in a different way. Some began tentatively, not sure what to wish for; others threw caution to the wind and made big wishes. The cool thing is that by the end of the book, many of their wishes had been fulfilled. Magic? Fiction? I think it is simply having a goal in front of you – making your wishes tangible. Looking at them daily. . . .as the Bible says (paraphrasing here – it comes from Deut. 6 if you want to read the exact wording) write them on your forehead, on your doorposts, think about them in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. . . . .it’s talking about the precepts and principles of God, but I believe it applies equally to anything we need to keep in front of us all the time. Make your wishes. Call them that, call them resolutions, call them goals, purposes, objectives – call them anything you like. But make them. Life is short. Let’s not waste it wondering what could be. Let’s make things happen in our lives. Pray about it, put it in your mind, and set about making your wishes come true. Shane and I have made our twenty wishes – this summer at 3:00 in the morning at Denny’s. I wrote them down. I think it’s time we revisit them – tweak them and make them real for ourselves. This life is ours. We’ve been given the gift of today. What would happen if we made every today count in our lives and the lives around us. What will you resolve? What will you wish? What will you make happen for yourself in 2010? Happy new day! Happy new year! Happy new decade! Happy new life!