New Beginning

Every year, our church holds a meeting for the 12 year-old girls entering the "young women" youth program.  They call it "New Beginnings" and it celebrates that these girls are commencing to enter an entire new phase of their lives.  When they leave the program at 18 years of age, they will truly be "young women." The leaders and other girls will help them along the way and they enthusiastically talk about the exciting things they will learn.

This post isn't about that.

BUT . . . it is about a new beginning.  And reasons to celebrate.  I see with a changed med regiment just how chronically grumpy, negative and tired I had become.  You know how you sometimes don't realize that your ears were ringing until it stops?  Yeah, it's like that.

I find myself held up by friends who have etched themselves deep into my heart.  Friends who drag me out of the house, kicking and screaming, and prove to me that I really CAN take part in the "real world."  And, dare I say. . . . even like it!  (But please don't tell them I said so.)  They love me, help me, comfort me, enjoy me, understand me (sometimes) and accept me.

I feel alert, light-hearted and free!  I refuse to think ahead that this will eventually cycle back around, just as the sun doesn't stay in the sky forever.  But I will savor it for as long as I can until the darkness falls.  I wonder who I will be when this phase of my life ceases - but I don't dwell.  For now, I will gaze at the sunrise and allow hope and excitement to lead the way.