Tomorrow is my birthday.

Birthdays are not a very big deal in our house, but at the very least, this birthday marks the passing of time for me. Another year lived. Tuesday marks the last day of my Project 365 as well, so it seems like a second reminder that a year is over and a new one is beginning.

This year has been full and interesting. Picking up my camera each day is a act that forces me to look at the blessings and the beauty in small, ordinary moments. I just finished a book called Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist which put my untamed brain into beautiful words:

“Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull off the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.
Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is.
You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.
You are more than dust and bones.
You are spirit and power and image of God.
And you have been given Today.”

-Shauna Niequist’

I spent the eve of my birthday watching the sun set. The clock will always keep ticking, but I want to take every opportunity I have to cherish to something that I love. And I love sunsets.

In an uncertain world, a world where I don’t have all of the answers, I can count on a few things: time passing, the sun rising and setting, and a God who is present in every moment, whether or not I notice.

Happy New Year to me. May I remember what is important and let go of what is not.