2010. The very first day to begin again.

As I was reflecting on 2009 and re-reading some journal entries, this quote I'd written down by Henri Nouwen stood out to me the most, and summarizes so well how I see the step into the new year.

"To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives - the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections - that requires hard spiritual work.

Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fulness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see it in the guiding hand of a loving God."

So on this new day, I step gratefully into a new year, a new decade. Unafraid to accept the fulness of my life story as a gift.



2010, here I come.