Thank You 2010

At the end of the year we all naturally take some sort of inventory. What have we accomplished. Where we have gone. Who we have met. With the ebb and flow of recollection and emotion, moments of the past year can seem like yesterday or a handful of years ago and still only be within the span of the last 12 months. Doesn't last January, seems like ages ago?

So many of our memories are marked by special events on the calendar like birthdays and holidays. Eventful days that assist us in remembering the time as it passes and properly filing it away as the more important images we should not forget. But still there are even more ordinary moments that without a bookmark can quickly fade into the dim light of our mind's eye, save for their emotional echo sometimes lingering behind still connected to a place or a friend.

I sometimes wish I could save these everyday extraordinary moments inside a type of snow globe that I could shake once in awhile to relive them all over again on especially gloomy days when nothing feels right and you have to look so much harder to find the beauty in a person, place or thing. Yet, I know I would become a hoarder. I would have so many memory filled snow globes there would be little room for any thing else in our house. So on this last day of 2010 I am going to shake the crazy snow globe that is my head and look hard at all the people, places and things that have blessed our life this year. In doing so I hope I will make way for all the wonderful people, places and things I have yet discover and experience in 2011 and beyond.

Thank you 2010, for my husband David and his gentle, loving heart that expands and flexes with his crazy wife's overly enthusiastic and positive spirit. Thank you for our entire family, especially our three amazing Grandsons who call me Nana, and always tell me that they love me.

Thank you 2010 for letting me discover something new about my self every time I pick up a pen to write or touch my fingers to a keyboard.

Thank you for our beautiful home where we have been able to welcome so many friends and family this year. Where inside we have celebrated good health, the well written word, birthdays, confirmations, warm holidays by a fireplace, reunions with old friends, late night discussions and of course, love.

Thank you 2010 for our Faith, the Holy Spirit that fills our lives and reminds each of us how very special and treasured we are in God's love despite the darkness that persists in the world around us.

Thank you for all the amazing places we have been able to go and our friends and family that through so many blessings, we have been able to spend time with in California, Park City, New York, Colorado and our river house.

Thank you for the butterfly at the top of the Empire State building that reminded me to believe in my dreams.

Thank you 2010 for all of our new friends and for all of our old friends, especially those we were able to reconnect with in gratitude for intertwined histories and hearts that help us realize how far we have come in this life.

Thank you for the tears. The tears of joy, the tears of grief, and the tears of anger. Thank you for the tears we have shed for those who have gone ahead leaving us behind to miss them in anticipation of divine reunion.

Thank you for letting us be there for others in word, deed or spirit as they were grieving or struggling this year. Thank you for all of our failures this year that made us try harder and for all of those who were there for us when we needed them.

Thank you for the harsh words we heard or said that later reminded us to be more kind. To let our vanities go. To be love.

Thank you 2010 for the inspiration of others that told us to keep trying, to dig deeper and in turn be an inspiration to others.

Thank you for allowing us to dance and move, yet still remember how difficult it can be when you cannot. Thank you for our open minds and willing hearts that are not afraid to listen, be tolerant, or patient.

Thank you so much for all the smiles, hugs, kisses, laughter and prayers that sustained us and will sail us into 2011.

Thank you.