2017 ~ America or Bust...

So here I sat on the eve of the official winding down of the clock. The elusive time keeper that ticked away the hours, scratched off the seconds and tracked the moments of yet another year. 2016 may now seem a blur to some, while to others a long and never ending uphill crusade. Another 525,600 minutes filled with joy and tragedy. A full 8,760 hours of loss and hope.

No matter which it was for you, it was simply just another year. Another 12 months, 52 weeks and 365 days of time passing. While we flip thru our photo’s, revisit our facebook status’, let our minds wander to those moments we long to relive, and count our blessings, all we can do is move forward. Move onward into another calendar of ticking and tocking.

What we do with the time before us matters so much more than the hours that have passed us. Life is a journey to be traveled. Whether its quickly or at a snails pace, with happiness or sadness, heartbreak or celebration; we each walk, run or stumble forward as best we can with the tools and knowledge we collect along the way.

Regardless of where it is our future leads us, what awaits us around the next corner, or where it is we long to be; we simply have today. Today to make a difference. Today to gather goodness. Today to choose love over hate.

As we pack up 2016 may we take with us, all that collectively shaped our lives for the better. May we load our pockets with the pebbles of crumbled stones; not so that we remember the battle, but that we never forget we survived. May we fill our hearts with forgiveness; not for those that have wronged us, but as a reminder to be gentle with ourselves. May we stack our minds with the chapters we’ve cherished, and file away those which we’d rather forget. May we also overflow our souls with the peace of a promise, as we illuminate the darkness that looms just behind us.

May we continuously allow the warmth of tomorrow to embrace us today; and always recall with quiet grace, those that have lifted us up.

No matter what kind of year it has been, how far we have traveled or what we find waiting for us on the other side, may we all remember in this life, in this one moment of time, its all about today, and what we choose to do.

May you all have blessings to count, memories to recall, moments to embrace; and may each of us awake tomorrow with love, peace and freedom still at our front doors.