Let’s start it off with a not-very-flattering-but-supremely-genuine laugh-shot.

Making specific resolutions has never been in my wheelhouse. Much like Bean last night as Auld Lang Syne began playing, New Years Eve usually makes me a little melancholy and reflective. Bean started to cry as the clock stuck- it could have been a manic crash after hot chocolate and games in the park, but he was genuinely sad to say goodbye to 2013. I’m not. I’m delighted to be ushering in a new year- last year was full of rough patches- but I like to take some time and figure out what those lessons are, and how to authentically incorporate them into my real life.

So for this coming year, I hope for more laughter and genuine moments of joy. I hope to be able to recognize the grace and mercy I’m granted as it’s happening, and not just in retrospect. I hope for inspiration and the wherewithal to follow through on that inspiration. I hope to create and mine beauty from the raw materials God hands me, and I hope to be able to more fully share that beauty with the world. I hope to continue to find my voice as a woman, mother, writer, artist, and whatever else I am called to be. I hope for hope in my heart, and I hope for happiness in my home. I hope for those I love to have the strength and inspiration to walk the road that rises before them, and I hope to meet them on that journey.

Thank you, 2013. Welcome, with great hope, 2014.