And so today is the last day of this year.. a year that has been very good to me. A year when I’ve experienced so many lovely moments, when I’ve been blessed enough to enjoy good health and share a great deal of love with my family.. a year when I’ve made new wonderful friends and reconnected with good friends from years past. I feel blessed to share a life with my love of many years.. enjoying new experiences while being able to look back upon many good years together.. and yet look forward to the future, making new plans for the year ahead.

Are there resolutions that I have in my head for changing things about myself, for doing things differently? Do I have a list of improvements? Do I have a checklist of things I want to accomplish? Am I ready to check items off on my bucket list? Perhaps I should have those lists, with items that I can check off,  but I don’t. I can remember when I was younger.. making such lists.  It’s good to have goals.. and I do have those. I certainly have many ways in which to improve, in which to make myself more useful and productive, in which to be a better person. I plan to incorporate some new better ways of accomplishing things in my life, but I know that I’m not going to check things off on a piece of paper, or even in my head. My list is an ongoing hope, an ongoing goal. With each new day that goes by, I will continue to try to look at what is going on in my life and feel thankful for all that it is.. thankful for the love, thankful for being able to wake up every day feeling healthy and able to look at what is going on around me in a positive way. And I hope that I will have the strength to deal with all that life hands me, even when there are times that are not so good. I hope that my faith will prevail in all things. I hope that I can help where I am needed and give of myself more than I have in the past. I hope that I can use the skills that God has given me to make a positive difference in the world. Perhaps these goals sound like resolutions.. and perhaps they are in a way. But I’m not going to check them off. I’m not going to claim “I did this!”. They are quite simply an ongoing goal for every day.. day in and day out.. for today, tomorrow, and for every day, for as long as I’m around. I hope that I can listen to God’s voice as He leads me forward.. every day. It doesn’t matter what day or year it is, or what my circumstances may be. I also know that I will probably fall short of being able to accomplish all that I’m hoping for. But I will move forward, for the rest of today, for tomorrow, and for all the tomorrows in the new year and the next.. listening, learning, and doing the best I possibly can.

~ Carole Carter – words and photograph