Happy New Year

 January 1, 2024

Linda and I rang in the new year in bed…sleeping. Up until last year we celebrated with two of her sisters and their husbands with steaks on the grill followed by writing in the annual diary we passed around the table. There’s years’ worth of memories in that book, but I suspect we’ve made our last entry. This year we all stayed home. It was pretty quiet; almost too much so.

Today was pretty much the same. I slept in till 7:00, fixed Linda breakfast, talked. She did some housework while I bled the brakes on my bike before dismantling an antique lamp I’m having restored as one of her Christmas gifts. No big parties, no big deal.

Quiet is good, as long as we don’t have too much of it. I’ve often wondered how I would handle being bedridden, or simply unable to do some of the tasks that take up my days. I can only tolerate so much tv, and reading for any length of time is getting harder on my eyes, so practicing my bass, working on the bike or on that old lamp, or meeting friends for breakfast or Bible study, or even attending board meetings for the village and Samaritan House take on a greater meaning for me.

Linda asked me what my goals for 2024 are. I have a few plans, but I’m not sure about goals, except perhaps to be a better person and love God and people more. I have no idea what this new year will bring, and really don’t care to know. I would be fretting about whatever ills may be coming my way, spoiling today for worry about tomorrow, or I would be making foolish decisions based on anticipated blessings, decisions that would have every possibility of destroying whatever blessing God has in store.

So…Happy New Year! I don’t wish that it would be better than 2023, but that you and I would be better than we were in 2023.