“Look to the Lord and His strength; Seek His face always.”  Psalm 105:4

So, it’s February already.  And you may be thinking I’m a little late on greeting the New Year.  Not at all.

I have come to the conclusion that for me the new year begins in February.  I did glance it’s way on a couple of post early in January.  I even chose a word for the year. Begin.  Yes, I get the irony.

But, I wasn’t ready.  It may have been partly due to the worst case of sinusitis I’ve ever had, followed by a horrible bout with gout (see how I rhymed. it just happened).

However, I think the truth is that it takes me that long to decompress and wind up the old year.  That whole stretch from Thanksgiving to New Years is not especially kind to me.  No matter how much I try to stay calm, for some reason the holidays stress me every time.

If I could just go away for about six weeks at the end of every year to my favorite place in the mountains, I’m sure I’d be ready to say hello on January 1.  That, of course, is not usually an option because it is family time and family is important.

So, I take January to regroup.  This year I had some brain swirls, but I didn’t feel like engaging in deep thought on a regular basis, so I just left them swirling.  Oh, I did make some lists of goals and projects and even daily schedules.  Things I was shuffling around in an attempt to come up with a plan for the year.

I even had an epiphany of sorts that sometimes in order to begin you have to stop. If you think about it long enough it does make sense.  Sometimes in order to gain perspective and direction you have to stop and take it all in.

Stopping to reassess goes along with the theme of reviewing the old and regrouping for the new. Right?  It goes along with setting goals and moving forward. Right? So, that’s what I did.  I stopped for awhile.

Today, I decided I was finally ready to greet the New Year.  Ready to begin. Please don’t ask me what that means.  It may take all year to figure that out.  But, you have to start somewhere.

My somewhere is simply to say, Hello 2014.

Beginning in Grace,

Teresa

PS.   I am ready for spring and swinging on my front porch. Winter is so last year.