bethstedman.com

There’s a lot of hype around New Years.

We get all excited over a new beginnings. We tell each other “This year is going to be different. 2013 is going to be a great year.” We love the idea of a fresh start and clean slate, a new beginning.

And as much as I would like to say that everyday is an opportunity for a fresh start and that every moment is new, that’s not really how I live. And so it’s good to have a new year. A celebration that reminds me of newness and the freshness of each day. A celebration that begs me to contemplate that which has gone before while at the same time moving boldly into that which is not yet. I need New Years.

And yet this year, honestly, I feel less into it. I can’t seem to psyche myself up for it. I can’t seem to find the excitement to say “This is our year! 2013 will be a great year.” Perhaps I’m a little jaded, perhaps I’m just tired. Perhaps I’m growing wiser. Because the truth is I have no idea what 2013 will hold.

I might like to dream about and plan for various things happening in 2013. But, I can only hold those things loosely, because I know that the tiniest pull would unravel them.

This isn’t to say, though, that I lack hope for the year, quite the contrary. I have deep hope for this year. For perhaps the first time I am looking on the coming year with open hands, simply curious what it might bring. I am hopeful, not in my goal setting, or my hoping for tangible events. I am hopeful and can look at this year with expectations of joy, because I know that whatever it brings, heartache or triumph, surprises of joy or unexpected pain, I will not walk through it alone.

I will walk through 2013, as I have walked through 2012, with the love, support and care of so many near and far. I will walk through it with the Spirit of the Eternal at my side. I will walk through it, one day at a time, step by step, moment by precious moment. And that’s enough.

You know what, when it comes down to it I don’t ask for 2013 to be a great year. I just want it to be a year filled with love.

Rejoicing in the journey,
Bethany Stedman

PS – Bryan and I made a little electronic New Years site with a timeline of our 2012 and a few words of thanks to all of you who walked through this year with us. You can check it out at www.bethstedman.com/2012. Hope you enjoy it! Wishing you all a very Merry and Bright New Year!

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