Remembering the past year and looking ahead

First of all let me say Happy New Year! My prayer is that you will have a new year filled with joy and those wonderful unexpected blessings that the Father bestows on us. Well this is only 3 days overdue, but I HAVE been thinking about my last few years, what have I accomplished. What have I done for me, to enjoy LIFE instead of just letting work consume me all the time. And of course I had a great conversation with my mom and dad while I was home. Lots of talk about goals, things that they remember that I wanted to accomplish in my life and also reminders of what I was like when I was younger, things I would do without worrying. As I have gotten older I have gotten more careful. Too careful. I have talked myself out of doing things because I "might" get hurt, I have to go back to work the next day or it might take too much time to do. Now I am not wanting to go jump off a cliff or out of plane for that matter although I have friends that would definitely want to give that a try. (yeah you know who you are :-D) But myself and heights are still at odds in some situations. However, I was remembering a day in the not too distant past when I wasn't afraid to try hang-gliding, hike off trail up to the top of a mountain, or even roller skate on what I consider one of the slickest surfaces EVER: fiberglass. Now you can really fly on that kind of surface. Although I didn't do all the tricks my brother did in his skates on that surface. ha! Or just go get get in my car and go explore, sit at the edge of a lake, ocean, mountainside or my backyard with nothing but a book and journal and NO WATCH. But time and fear run my life some days, not my life running time and overcoming whatever "fears" there might be. So I guess you would say I resolve to take time to just observe, not be so afraid to try, think about what God would want me to tackle in this new year that He has given me and be thankful for each new day that He shares with me and not squander it. And yes I have already started my task of not letting things pass me by. My challenge to you would be to ask what are you NOT doing today or lately. What have you given up because of age, time, or situation? Time is a gift that the Father has given us. We aren't guaranteed the next second, minute, hour or day. Our family has held to Jeremiah 29:11-12 the last few years. Even though I do believe the Father has plans for our lives we aren't given any blueprint or contract to know how much time we have been given to accomplish those plans. So don't squander the dreams He laid on your heart and simply give up on them because of life situation.

So get out there, stop every once in a while, laugh with your children, have tickle fights or just take off the watch and leave the cell phone behind. Scary, huh?? :-)

By the way if you want a place to try hang gliding and want a soft landing :-) then try Jockeys Ridge State Park in NC. Kitty Hawk Kites has been giving lessons for years. They also have other cool things like parasailing, kite boarding, etc. http://www.kittyhawk.com/

And if you want to try hiking on some really great trails to see some magnificent vistas I would recommend these two places: Blue Ridge Parkway. My favorite places to hike are on the map to the right off of the blue line. Sorry I couldn't get it bigger: the link to this is http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/map5.htm
Another location is in SC. Haven't hiked much here yet and it doesn't really go up to heights as high as in NC but there are still beautiful things to see and experience. http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/