Fire Up

Happy new year everyone! I hope your Christmas time was lush and you are solidly back in the groove – welcome back!

This new year I spent a lovely time with close friends as we wrapped up the year and let the promise inherent in Christmas fire us up for a fresh 2011 start. Curled up around the fire, feasting, chatting, we challenged each other to confront face on what was so hard in 2010, and really, some parts of it were dire. We walked through these experiences to a place of gratitude – gratitude for the fact we faced tough turns in our lives but lived to tell the tale, and are stronger for making it. Further, our faith is deeper that whatever happens God's hand is at work to see us through. So we said some prayers too, unconventionally for a night that supposedly wears the Biggest Party of the Year crown.

What seemed so new about this new year was a resolve that we will not take 'no' for an answer, even after all this. New year is our cultural moment to choose reignition and spark into new adventures, putting the past into positive light and holding torches up for the future. We talked—me and my friends—about what we will remember about making it, and how we will remember, and how these memories will inspire us to grasp all the things we dream of for 2011. 

It's not just the 'what', it's the 'how' too.

It becomes the new year tradition for many, to fill these lanterns with light and float them off into the air. We have gratitude for what has gone before and we have hope for what lies ahead.

Have a wonderful, adventure-filled 2011.

{Today's Soundtrack: Fanfarlo - Reservoir}