My plans for '08 are unfolding this week...although I have been thinking about them for quite some time. I love the feeling of a brand new year. It is like having a great outfit for an important party...you get to be unique, have fun, take off a sweater that becomes too stuffy, or wrap yourself up in a pashmina if a chill takes over. Things are looking good to me from where I sit and I just realized that this year will be all about walking...
I will walk with my family...I will rejoice in launching my daughter into her brand new world of young adult hood. I will unclasp my vice grip on her and let our fingers gently open. If I get scared, I will grab her pinkie for a pinkie swear...but mostly I will walk with her to the door of her new life and I will encourage her to walk through it. By herself. With me cheering her on.
I will walk with my husband into our third decade of knowing each other. I still marvel at how smart my heart and soul was at meeting him, choosing him and loving him all this time. We will build one more house together this year. It is symbolic because each new home has prepared the way for each new lesson we, together, have learned. I sincerely hope we can be done learning. We trust God to walk with us. Off we go!
I will walk with my partners. I am delighted to be launching a new non-profit foundation to support cancer patients in the Philadelphia region this winter. I may be anonymous right now, but if I go on Oprah, I will wave directly to you and oh, the fun we will have as I travel the world to tell our story. More on that later, but trust me when I tell you , they are great guys. We met in a business setting and accidently fell into a deep, rewarding friendship that very much complement this stage of my life. I am proud to walk with them, arm in arm. We are gonna save the world! Ok, not, but we are gonna help a lot of people!!
I will walk with my friends. New and old, RL and E-friends, I will walk with you as we share the joys of our friendship. It is no small thing, this blessing of you. I am bigger, stronger, better, nicer, having you in my life. Thank you. I humbly walk with you...I hope I never disappoint you. And if I do, I hope I recognize it so that I will apologize. If I miss it, I hope you trust me enough to gently tell me so that I can fix it.
To my friends who have parted ways with me this year, I bless you. I am so grateful for the beauty of the times we have shared. If we no longer click, that is God's design too. Our time has been productive and our promises made are complete. I bless you in your journey and I hope you will look back on me with fondness. I will miss you and love you always.
Mostly, I will walk with God. I have been cured by his single touch. I have wrapped myself in the healing comfort of his cloak. I am not ashamed to say it. I am in awe that it really happened and happened to me. What greater gift? I will still have peaks and valleys. I will know and then not know but I will walk so that I can continue to grow into the divineness of the person I am meant to be. I will walk with myself.
I will walk on.
Happy New Year!
Mamie
