Reflecting

This morning, as I woke up for the last time in 2010, I looked out on the sun-filtered morning landscape and felt a wave of thankfulness wash over me. What a good year we've had. What a bounty of blessings we have to be thankful for. Sure, there were sad and bitter times mixed in with the sweet, but just like salt in a recipe, they have only served to make the joyful times even more pronounced.

Now, in savoring the last few hours of a good- yet all too short- year, my thoughts can't help but wander to the promise of the New Year. The changes and blessings, comings and goings, and joys and sorrows will all be greeted with open arms, and our little family will be all the stronger for it. However, we will not loose sight of our past, our lessons learned, and our roots that make us strong. As you make your way through the tail end of this dying year, may the words of the poem by Robert Burns ring out the old and in the new:

Auld Lang Syne

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
on Old long syne.

On Old long syne my Jo, in Old long syne, That thou canst never once reflect, on Old long syne.

My Heart is ravisht with delight,
when thee I think upon;
All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,
and speedily is gone;
The bright resemblance of thy Face,
so fills this, Heart of mine;
That Force nor Fate can me displease,
for Old long syne.

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,
when from thee I am gone;
will not thy presence yield relief,
to this sad Heart of mine:
Why doth thy presence me defeat,
with excellence divine?
Especially when I reflect
on Old long syne.