2012 - A year of Hope

May this be a year full of health, of hope, and of happiness.
May this be the year you find peace within yourself and see the peace and beauty surrounding you.

May this be the year that we fight for freedom and for justice.

May this be a year of transformation.

May this be a year of living for others rather than ourselves.

May this be a year of smiles and laughter, of tears and of joy.

May this be a year of courage and of strength.

May this be a year of change.

May this be the year that you and I step forward and turn the page ourselves rather than waiting for someone else to turn it for us.  Whether that be another person, a job, or God; we must stop waiting and stop blaming.  Don’t wait for someone else, just put one foot forward and go.  

Especially don't blame the one who equipped us with legs and with brains to USE.

May this be the year that you and I give our best…

Not the cheap canned food that you were never going to eat anyway. 

Not that old coat from five winters ago. 

Not what is left after paying numerous bills and making sure everything we want or need is taken care of. 

We must give our best FIRST.  Or we don’t actually give at all.

May each of us have our hearts broken, whether for ourselves or for another.

May we rise up through the heartbreak stronger and more steadfast than before.  May we find, in our own pain, a courage that is unbreakable, a courage that prevails through fire and through oceans and through wars.

May we find the audacity to change the world, one smile, one whisper, one faltering step at a time.

Don’t wait for the world to come to you.  Don’t wait for the broken to show up at your doorstep.  Don’t expect you the story of your life to write itself.  Because if you do, you are going to wake up tomorrow and be 86.  You are going to wonder, where am I and what happened to my life?  What did I accomplish?  What am I leaving behind?

All it takes is one.

Let's make this year a good one.