Ordinary Time

It's New Year's Eve. I'm not in the mood to go into a list of resolutions I might make for the upcoming year. I lack the follow-through to actually carry them out. Besides, my unoriginal resolution is always to lose my 40-50 lbs of nasty that accumulates around my middle. How tiresome. It's not as if every other chubby middle-aged woman in America makes that resolution. Why not make the resolution to try artisanal cheese or go sky-diving? What will happen is that for a week or two I go full-speed at the weight loss thing, then someone brings in brownies to school. So the logical thing would be to learn to love myself as a fatty. But I'm in the mood to make peace with my rotundness, either. And the other things I could improve, such as being more punctual or better organized just seem like a maternal part of my mind nagging the lazy teenage self that is blogging today. I want to tell my inner mom, "All RIGHT, all RIGHT. Fine, whatever," so I can go back to watching movies all day. So enough with the "new year, new life" pep talk.

This is my least favorite time of the year. What's so great about January or February? Not a blessed thing as I can see. In the Cincinnati metro region this is when we usually get our snow, not at Christmas. If we don't get snow, we usually have color-coordinated weather. The ground, the trees, and the sky are all a monochromatic gray-ish color. How utilitarian.

This is the time of the year that I start to look for little tiny things to anticipate. Good thing, too, since my big thing isn't going to happen after all. Here are some things to look forward to:

1. Luke and I are going to Pittsburgh for our friends' wedding on MLK weekend. I can't remember the last time we went away for a weekend without the children. I'm thinking it might have been in 2000, before we had kids.

2. My kids got a tent for Christmas, so I guess we can go camping.

3. I got two good cookbooks for Christmas, so I can try new recipes.

4. I have a sweet and thoughtful daughter who got me a pretty dishtowel from the Santa Shop at school.

5. Umm, well, there's always spring break.

6. And after spring break there's summer vacation.

As I said earlier, I'm not a fan of January or February. The holidays are never the shining wonder time that retailers want us to imagine them to be, but the time with family and friends is restful and fun. My day-to-day life is mostly pretty good, but to be certain the pace can take its toll. And I've got too short an attention span to be a fan of the repetitiveness of regular life.

If I had to make a resolution, then, I would resolve to find wonder in what is ordinary. I would resolve to bless the everyday moments of grace. To be certain each day is filled with grace. In my church we frequently sing the idea that "God woke me up this morning, and that's a miracle." It's easy for me to lose sight of the fact that breathing is a miracle, that trees are a miracle, that a good bowl of soup is a miracle, that my friends and family are a miracle. May I keep these thoughts throughout the year, and may I remember always to be grateful for small blessings.