New Year's Resolutions: Why they're not such a bad thing...

I've long been apathetic towards New Years' Resolutions. Its not that I think they're bad, its just that I haven't ever been into making them...

formally, that is.

You see, to some extent, A New Year's Resolution is like any other resolution: a reset. a new beginning. 

When I really think about it, I make New Year's Resolutions all the time. Each day, I resolve to do something. And I think its important to be mindful enough in our day to day living to resolve to doing something each day...even if the something is brushing my teeth before noon or making it to the pool for a swim (yes, these are actual daily resolutions for me :)

Over the last few weeks, several people have been talking about their New Year's Resolution(s). For some, its weight-loss. For others, its to be more organized. Some people are leaving Social Media behind in this New Year of 2015.

While I've decided to keep my resolutions private in my personal journal (Yes, a hardcopy, bound, leather journal (how archaic?!)), I nevertheless have jumped on the bandwagon and chosen to embrace our cultural practice of New Year's Resolutions.

Because who doesn't need a new beginning? 

Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. 

I instinctively hit my reset button both in the Fall and Spring. Summer is usually a less planned, more laid back, and more care-free form of me as a friend, a daughter, a sister, a wife, and now as a mother. By the middle of winter, I need an intentional reset.

I need to be reminded that God is at work in me and in those I know and love, and in our world. I need the hope that God is making a way...and not just a way, but His Way.

For me, 2014 was one of my BIG YEARS. I became a mother this year. I became an Nurse Practitioner this year. I watched my husband become a Doctor this year. And I saw pieces of the puzzle fall into place in ways that I never would have imagined.

I resolve to be, to practice, to live, to grow, and to... quite a few other things in 2015. Its exciting, isn't it...A new year? A new beginning?

Cheers 2014!

Choking on Leaves

Its days like today that I just want to sit and savor...

perfect golds. falling leaves. my favorite quilt in the backyard.

I sip a latte and nibble on sea-salted-caramels while Ransom crunches leaves with those chubby little hands.

Not long after capturing the moments above do I hear Ransom start to gag...not just gagging a little, but full on choking! I flip him over my knee as he throws up his lunch (at least 3 oz of milk!) and then do a quick finger sweep to find that he'd not just been eating pieces of leaves...he'd swallowed an entire leaf!

After making sure his airway was clear, we did a quick wardrobe change; Nay, I did a quick wardrobe change (he managed to spatter every layer of clothing I was wearing. What can I say, the kid's got skills) and there he was, right back at it...trying with all his little big being to make it back to the edge of the quilt where he could eat more leaves!

How often do I do the same thing?...stuff my face with things that will choke me. I'm not talking about physically stuffing my face to the point of choking (well, mostly I'm not talking about that...)

I'm talking about force-feeding my spirit and choking my soul on things that can and will rob life. For me, the leaves come in many colors, shapes, and sizes...

 "surfing the web" when my husband is sitting right next to me. We could be talking. We could be reading out loud together. We could be making out for Pete's sake! 

picking a fight when I could be giving those I love the benefit of the doubt

watching an episode (or four) of junk on Hulu when I could be playing with my son without the background noise

judging others for their shortcomings instead of acknowledging and encouraging their sucesses

endless scrolling of my Facebook newsfeed to see what my "friends" are up to when I could be writing a letter to one of them in real time...

Instead,  I crawl like a wild animal to the edge of my quilt and eat those leaves! Leaves that will choke me.

It scares me to think about how many times a day I race towards the edge of the quilt and eat leaves...like I can't (or is it that I choose?) not to remember the choking episode just moments earlier.

My daily prayer is that I'll remember the choking and I'll put down the leaves. And if I don't have the strength in me to do that today, that God in his grace will finger sweep my throat and set me back down again in the middle of the quilt.

He is good like that. Always saving me from myself and keeping me close by to care for me when I inevitably eat leaves again.

Thanks be to God.