A year in review

Hello world-wide-web, Merry Christmas everyone! May God bless each and every day of your New Year, but, more importantly, that you be open and aware of each and every blessing. In Jesus' Name. Amen. When a New Year is about to begin, I imagine the months written on a colorful tapestry, with three columns for each month: January, February, and March (off to the side in pretty script: Winter); the next months: April, May and June (Spring); July, August, September (Summer); and then Fall: October, November and December. The year starts off easy enough, and I enter each day on the calendar boldly with my bearings about me: finish my master's; be the best teacher I can be; be the best person I can be...the tapestry is still clean, and whatever mistakes are made in the first three months are easily erased, with the hope that I can make up for them somewhere else in the year (I usually can't, or forget) But then come the summer months, one of which is my birthday month, and I take stock of the last six months and see some days have a hole in them where I tried to erase a work blunder, or, worse yet, the tapestry has stains on it from tears shed -good and bad-or from an especially rainy day. There are days with huge smiling suns: I made a great grade on a test, a student(s) mastered a concept, or a co-worker(s) gives a genuine compliment. By the end of the year I notice some of the tapestry is frayed on the edges, with some days blotted out completely, for whatever reason. I've had years where the calendar in my mind has months torn out, or slashes in them; I think the year my father was ill and passed may have months that were singed (he was a smoker). With two weeks before a New Year about to begin, I'd say the tapestry of 2009 doesn't look too bad: with God's help and presence, the year has stayed intact. As I am looking at the tapestry of 2010, I pray for God's guidance, love, mercy on me, and on all of my friends. 2010's tapestry is just as strongly made as 2009, and ready for adventures! So, what does your 2010 tapestry look like? Gaaaaahhhhd bless us!