Cherish the Moments

On New Year's Eve there is one thing that is inevitable for everyone............ thoughts of the past year and its' high and low points. Over the past few weeks hearing the old news stories and seeing the vivid images of life around the world have been a part of our holiday preparations. So, here we come smack up against a new year stretching before us with a fresh new slate. We make resolutions, we have dreams and for some small measure we can plan and take control of a handful of things that will happen in our life. For the most part however, life is uncertain, sometimes short and often quite the opposite of what we would chose if given the chance. The surprises are those things that can take our breath away and buckle our knees (for the good and the bad).

I'm like every mother in the world, I quite simply adore my kids---- love their little butts to bits! They're all grown up now and out in the world making their own choices, which is a gazillion times harder for a mom if you ask me. When they are still under your care at home you worry like crazy, but they are on a much shorter string. You see them more (usually) and have closer contact. When they are out and about you both worry more and worry less, it's a funny pot of soup for sure. Just because your kids or your loved ones are not sleeping at night under your roof or joining you for meals doesn't mean that you don't cherish them all the more with every heartbeat. It is a pain in the drain not to have control over the life of your children!

My phone rang at 11:30 p.m. Pretty late for most phone calls and it generally means that it's not a very good thing. When I answered I heard the shaken voice of my youngest daughter, she had been robbed at gunpoint. She'd worked late and there was an attempted bank robbery near work. She left for home and her complex is next to the shopping center where she works and where the bank was. I guess you would say in simple terms that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time because she came upon this bank robber outside her apartment door in the exterior hallway. Thank God she was okay and only lost material possessions like her phone, wallet and contents of her purse. She could have so easily lost her life, it would have been over in a flash. I kept thinking that if something horrible would have happened, were there things left unsaid? Undone? Thankfully, that was not the case.

As the world prepares to enter another year and it stretches before us clean and untried, my reminder was to cherish family and friends. Never to take that for granted, not ever----- and to hold them tight in love.

When you reflect upon the year that has passed, count your blessings. As you enter the new year, bring those blessings along and embrace the moments that will come. Hold it all tightly in love.