a year in review

Sorry for the recent incoherence on my little blog. I can't seem to find the silence or concentration necessary for writing and praying, so I'm not really sure how this will go. Already I've shooed my niece out of the room and stopped twice to talk to Brian ... in addition, talking about this year feels reckless. I can remember saying as a kid, "It hurts when I do such-and-such," to which my mom would reply, "Well, don't do that then." I may regret ignoring her advice here. But not all of this year has been bad, and I want to remember all of it, not just the endings. I hope that in writing this, I will hold on to the good, and not give too much weight to the rest. Having said that, what did I do in 2005?

I saw a baby born! and it was my first experience with a Creative God. I learned how to pray, and saw a Faithful God at work over and over in the lives around me. I found a hill to hike, met an old friend again, bought a canoe, played and painted and ate with my niece, watched a baby grow, watched Brian grow, got to know my family, painted two houses (well, helped, anyway), ate my body weight in baked goods and coffee, wrote letters, parented a dog, made friends that lived on a hill and taught me to share, had friends who loved us and prompted us to go for it, went to a two-year-old's birthday party (complete with strawberries and an Elmo cake), watched a dead girl come back to life, talked and talked and TALKED to friends far away, read the Psalms, read Matthew, and taught Shadrack, Meeshak, and ABabyGoat to children who loved me back.

And I went! to Chicago; to the Lake; to Atlanta for an evening with Patty and Valerie; to Charlottesville, Virginia, the birthplace of Brian's dream of moving; to Washington, DC, when gas was 3.20 per gallon; to Nashville and back and there again; to Slap-Out and Autaugaville and Springville and Dothan; to the beach in the summer with a youth group (one of my very favorite things to do); down the Cahaba River 8 times in a month, and then never again; to a wedding and a baptism and a birth and a death. And then - and then! - I had the Who-Ever-Really-Gets-To-Do-This opportunity to spend a few months with everything I need in the Civic, living in basements and guestrooms in Mississippi and Kansas and Tennessee and Alabama, praying and reading and laughing and eating with friends and children who loved us back.

There is a Proverb that says, "Though it cost all you have, get understanding." That is a synopsis of my year. It cost me everything I had, but I am a different and better person because of this year. I want different things from life now. I am also angry about new things, and I love new people, and I love people for new reasons - all because of this year. This isn't all that happened, but these are the best parts, the pieces I choose to take with me. The rest of it will tag along without my choosing.

What about you? How was your year?