Today is the last day of the year.  Tonight my kids will be out at friends houses and my husband and I will be at home, celebrating on our own-- which is fine with me as I don't like to be on the road late on New Year's Eve.  But we always stay up watching movies and football and so forth, and we usually spend some time reflecting together on the year that is passing away, and looking ahead to the year to come.  Our year this year has been busy and eventful-- our son, who was living in Chicago last year, went from planning to move even farther away-- to Los Angeles-- to moving home for awhile; our daughter started her junior year of high school at a brand new school; I attended the PC(USA) General Assembly for the first time, and Jeff took a new job that started in December.  Life around here may not be terribly exciting all the time, but we do have our moments!

Reflecting on the years past is important because it can help us find the meaning and the pattern and the rhythms in our lives.  Often when we're in the midst of living our lives there isn't time, or we're too close to the action, for us to be able to process what is going on around us.  It's only later that we can say, "ok, I see how this was important" or "maybe that was why this happened."  We can look back and see where we were close in understanding with our loved ones, and where we pulled away from them.  We can see where what we were doing was helping us achieve our goals and where we were merely spinning our wheels. We can see times in which we were moving toward God and times in which we seemed to be moving away from God.  We can see where our priorities lay at different times-- and where we need work in order to get those priorities in correct order.

May your reflections on the past year reveal the many blessings of life and may you see the year ahead as a bright new challenge to be met, with God's help and guidance.

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