Thoughts on the New Year

Annie Dillard writes, "How you spend your days, is how your spend your life." I've been thinking about this for the last few days as a new year looms ahead. Some spend their days angry over circumstances and end up at the end of their days with an angry life. Some spend their days waiting for others to fix their problems and end up with a life lived as a victim. The thing that I fear, is having a life filled with regrets. Regrets at things undone; words unspoken or unwritten; relationships not experienced, purposes unfulfilled. I wonder how this will effect my moments and therefore my days and in turn, my life. Often I am so distracted by yearning to fulfill my life, that life itself is sneaking by. Can I reset my internal self to find joy in the "now" instead of longing for the "when?" When this project is finished then..... when we have the property then.....when I loose the weight then.....what about the now? I wonder how much of life we yearn away? Some slogan, somewhere stated, "Live the possibility!" Yet do we miss this present reality by doing so? How often do we sit in the moment in which we find outrselves and notice the surroundings? The voices of our loved ones? The chair under our body? The smells in the air? Even the fears in our hearts?
I plan to be more alive to each day this new year and more thakful for each moment I have. I hope to experience days that will be filled with contentment so that in the end I may have lived a life of contentment. I suspect that I will still find moments to dream without losing the reality of the dream that I am living...this amazing life that God has given me for this moment. Happy New Year.