Happy New Year! It's hard to believe that a new year has circled 'round again. I guess life really is a rhythm. It's surprising to me that I'm just starting to get a perspective on it at age 52. I think I have spent most of my life waiting for it to be different somehow. I've been "musing" (at this point I hate to call it thinking!) about the old and the new, beginnings and endings, and the endless restarting of life in general. I have a new year's resolution....I'd like to become more like Anna, the prophetess in the Bible. She waited at the temple for 84 plus years to proclaim the arrival of the Messiah. When she recognized Jesus, she joyfully proclaimed it to the assembled people. I wonder how many people listened to an old woman, especially one who had been widowed for 84 years. I wonder how Mary felt when she heard Anna's words. Mary, so different from Anna, a young mother who had brought her first baby to the temple, and who kept things close in her heart and pondered them. I think I would have liked Anna. I think I might have liked her style. I know I want to learn to wait with expectancy and proclaim with joyful spontaneity. Mary and Anna...weak and unimportant to the culture around them..... strong and empowered women who knew the plans God had for them. Bookends to the greatest story ever told, and witnesses to the greatest life ever lived. So, I'm thinking who are my bookends? Who are the strong, empowered women who are the witnesses to my life? Who are your bookends? Write and let me know....I'm interested.
