Book Ended in 2010

It is December 31st, one day before the New Year.


A time to remember.


Maybe try to forget.


I think a little of both.


A duplicitous time (and I think I am not alone).


Last year recovering from my back injury, I stumbled upon a book by Donald Miller called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I finished it in a few days.  It helped lift me out of circumstance and pain to the greater story being written through the pages of my life.  


I didn't know what lay ahead, I only knew his words lifted me up and renewed hope allowing it to expand within...


Inhale, 
     big breathe outward....
     
      THE BALLOON OF  H  O  P  E  GROWS.


Dreams were allowed room to stretch out, expand their horizons, and take a few more steps forward.


Desires seemed right there for the taking while at the same time just beyond reach.


Steps into new territory taken, yet the outcome quite different from the expectation.


Like I said, duplicitous.


And maybe I need to nestle into that reality (maybe we all do). Realizing it is all happening at the same time. the both/and, the IS. And in the midst something beautiful, mysterious, good IS happening but from a realm and a kingdom we have yet to understand.


This morning I lingered in bed well past eleven o'clock flipping through the pages of Anne Jackson's Permission to Speak Freely and once again I'm disrupted...


Reminded.


Renewed.


Another traveler willing to share deeply from within the pages being written in her story. And somehow, and in some mystical way, it gives me permission to live mine more fully and step into it with deeper faith.


And I am grateful.


Grateful for those who have had the courage to tell their stories and prodded me to more fully live in mine.


Inhale.....


     Deep Breathe.....


        Whhhhhhhhhoooooooooosssssshhhhhhhhh........


H O P E.


     F A I T H.


         E X P AN D I N G.


I don't now how God has book ended your year? Whether it's been an author's words, a relationship, an unexpected heartache, the fruition of a long sought after dream...I'm trusting with you (and for me) that something beautiful is unfolding (even, and perhaps most especially when we don't see it).


Hello 2011, we welcome you!