Aj Schwanz

The new year has arrived, and the webosphere is giddy with posts reviewing the past 365 days of blogging fodder. This year the rolling over from oh-nine to twenty-ten took me by surprise.  A friend emailed to see if we’d like to come over to her house:  my thought, “Why does she want me to come over so late on a Thursday night?  Is something special going on?”

It used to be such a big deal:  school papers turned in, payday, a time to start over.  I would give thought to what I wanted to do, how I wanted things to be different:  making resolutions to eat differently, dress differently, balance my checkbook, be a responsible member of society, read classical literature, better myself as a person.  Now, my brain has too many other things occupying the idealistic space where I could imagine lofty goals and dreams.  Current dreams – to someday sleep through the night, to eat a meal without having to get up fifteen different times, to have the eternal mental grocery shopping list retired, to have no more sticker bits in my carpet (it’s worse than my childhood dog’s hair, and he was a Husky/Malamute).

I talked about listening to the Bible every day, which I might not have done every day, but I did listen to every podcast (sometimes a bit more distracted than others).  Scripture has certainly become an important part of my life; however, I’m feeling antsy when thinking of listening to the podcast again this year, which generally is a God-poke-in-my-side to do something differently.  I’d love to hear how others incorporate it into their lives.

I also had a word for the year which was “present”.  That I presently forgot about until 3/4s of the way through the year.  Fortunately I remembered right as I added another member to the family, and the only thing I could really do in life was be present because having three tykes ages 5 and under means a productive days is people out of pajamas with teeth brushed at least once and sticker bits somewhat contained before bed.  This year I’m sensing the words “forgiveness” and “truth” will be woven throughout my daily walk – not necessarily the words I would prefer (“rest” and “endless energy” and “roomba” sound a lot more attractive).  It will be interesting to see where the wanderings of the year end up.