ode to 2016

I have a love-hate relationship with the advance of every new year.

Love, because I love to open up a brand-new journal to its first fresh page and set my pen to it.

Hate, because the pages fill so quickly - more and more quickly in fact as the new year becomes old.

But the filled pages reflect so much joy and blessing, packed tightly into every line, that I can never be too upset. Every year passes faster, yes, but it seems like every year improves on the last; the more I learn about my God by living each day by His side, the more beautiful He becomes.

Some pieces of 2016 have been brutal, marked with fear and terrible loss. I went to a memorial service that it feels like I never should have had to go to, at least not yet. I've seen friends grieve too soon. I've faced off with some of my worst fears and some of my longest-buried emotions.

Yet when I look back I see the vibrant colors of a beautiful world and a beautiful life.

I traveled more than 16,000 miles this year and saw three new states - Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. I went a record 51 weeks without getting sick (never mind that I then got sick with the same croupy fever thing three times in six weeks...). I got to spend almost three weeks of this year with my best friend, who lives on the other side of the country, and 59 total days with some or all of my family, all of whom live 150-200 miles away. I became an auntie for the first time, to a nephew due in April! I spent some of the best days traveling or working or hiking or exploring or just hanging out with my beloved husband/hero. I started this blog in May and, while it's a pretty modest piece of internet real estate by blogging standards, I am so happy to have a place to say what's on my heart whether or not anyone ever reads it.

Some say too much of this year was dark. They say good riddance to 2016 because of celebrity deaths or elections, or some of them for personal reasons, which I can understand. Life is hard, sometimes excruciating. But I say God has been good.

In the sunshine AND in the dark.