A New Year and a New Leaf

A planter on my desk holds several plants content to grow in overhead office lighting with occasional watering and a few encouraging words. They aren’t fussy plants and I’m good with that. Leaves are glossy green and though they grow very slowly, they are a pretty bit of life to have sitting on the desk next to me. Between Christmas and New Year, being in and out of the office more than normal, I was pleasantly surprised when I was greeted by a brand new leaf for New Year.

The color of new leaf green. It’s a beautiful color; the color of spring in and out of season. Fragile, unfurling and proudly declaring its newness; just like the new year. The year of 2015 has begun and holds all the beauty of a new leaf, delicate and spring green. Conversations of resolutions and new goals for a new year seem to abound. Some will be carried through, some will not; some will be altered and some will be given up for better things. But, I think for me it came like that leaf, unexpectedly and by surprise. 

The year of 2014 went through quickly, seemingly the calendar was on wheels and kept moving along at a faster and faster clip. The year changed before I even realized that it was time and what do you know but – poof, wah-lah and ta-da, the new year came! I’m not sure why things like that catch me by surprise sometimes, it’s not like I don’t know it is coming. But, there it is on the doorstep and new.

Have things like that ever caught you by surprise? You know it is coming, and yet somehow the actual arrival is sooner, unexpectedly sooner? My resolution, this third year in a row, is to choose a word that I will focus on through the year. Having it as a central focus helps to point directions in choosing books, devotions, conversations and seekings. My word for 2015 is with. It’s not a seemingly obvious word or maybe even a worthy of study word. Yet, as I was pondering this for the last month, this word “with” struck me over and over as incredibly powerful. It is a mutual word, with me – with you. It is an active word implying movement. It is a word of together and partnership.

 Welcome to the new year, enjoy the spring like green freshness the new year brings with us and to us.