enjoying LIFE

Daylight fades in a glorious display. The bare winter branches are silhouetted against the cerulean blue sky. And it's 5:23pm--which means the days are actually getting longer. (hey, for a girl who LOVES warmth & sunshine, I'll start looking for hints of that favorite summer season as soon as I can!)

I don't have a prefabricated topic to write about or an author's urge to communicate something profound. I just wanted to seize this moment and say...this is life. Isn't it beautiful?

There is something pretty amazing about the quiet moments that come in between the events on my too-full agenda. Yet maybe they are even more precious because of a busy schedule.

I guess that's why we're made to work...but we work in order to rest and we rest in order to work. It's the rhythm of life. I invite you to stop what you're doing at some point before the close of your day--and soak in life. Then write about it or share it with a friend or draw a picture or listen to a song. You've only got one of these things called "life." Soak it up!

New Year's resolutions, Christmas cards, and other things left undone...

Maybe my first new year's resolution of 2006 should be "to post to my blog more frequently than monthly." But I fear even a resolution as apparently easy and simple like this may go the way of my Christmas cards this year: unfinished (and, let me be more honest: unstarted, unless you count buying the cards and thinking about sending them out as a fair beginning). Why? What has happened between December 8th and today?

I could belabor the point and list all of my accomplished tasks in a bulleted list like this:

• completed 3 finals
• bought around a dozen Christmas presents for sundry family members and a few friends
• dabbled with 2 simple paintings
• hosted a Christmas party for 30 friends in South Carolina
• attended ___ Christmas parties
• flew home to South Carolina ...

...but I imagine that you are already bored with this list. This cannot even begin to capture life. Life is often what happens when blogs don't get posted, phone calls don't get returned, "to-do lists" are left undone, emails remain unanswered. Do you and I in America define life like this? Or do we tend to limit life to the tasks which fill our days?

If I were to write a real New Year's resolution for 2006, it would be to simply live life in all its vitality...which means slowing down, enjoying the moment, refusing to confuse life with a planner full of events. What would I find if I did this?

Relationships. Family. Love. Laughter. Joy. Sorrow. R E S T. God.

What did I really do between now and then? I introduce you to LIFE as I've been living it for the past month...in photos. ENJOY!

My boyfriend, Seth, and I at a friend's wedding

Jess & Tony (soon-to-be-married!), with the radiant Susie and Drew

My family on a walk in downtown Greenville, SC

With my best friend at her apartment in ATL

From the 4 week old...to the older...cousins & relatives gathered in Alabama for Angela's wedding