There are Far, Far Better Things Ahead

Oh, 2017.

I have 38,015 pictures on my iPhone; no more Apps, no more music, and a REAL issue with holding on.  Too tight.

In 2017 I met the Eiffel Tower for the first time, the London Eye sparkled outside my hotel room, and I tiptoed through the actual tulips of Holland.  My baby turned one; and the other babies turned 4…and then 6.  We all suffered through the first few days, and then weeks, and then MONTHS of kindergarten; assuming all might return to normal, but no: the time had come for books to replace blocks; and phonics to replace the weekly “gathering of wishes” at the park.

I’d like to think my heart and mind are capable storing much more than my iPhone; but currently, as I’m unable to capture any moments of the present [STORAGE FULL], I’m grateful for the giant [FLASHING] metaphor phrased best by the Dalai Lama: 

“He said, ‘there are only two days in the year that nothing can be done.  One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.'” 

I, painfully, started the deletion process (3,052 down!)…and instead of worrying about how badly I want to return to each and every moment of the past year (it’s all lies, I will still want to), I’ve really focused on some of my favorite words of Tennyson (so fitting for the new year):

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier'”.

I don’t think 2017 has a monopoly on HAPPY; and I’m hopeful that “hope” , at the threshold of each new year, will breathe happier things in to our days, but this year was one for the books.  And I’m thankful for that.

C.S. Lewis will argue that “There are far far better things ahead than the ones we leave behind”; and so I’m experimenting upon his words.  If the past is any indication of future success, I trust him…so far.

I have set three major, MAJOR:) goals for myself in 2018; and while I know that they will all be daunting, I’m so ready for the task.  It’s time I work on something really, really challenging (in so many forms).  And I happen to really, really like even years.

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring happy bells, across the snow; The year is going, let him go: Ring out the false, ring in the true.” – Tennyson

HAPPY NEW YEAR!