dear 2010.

 {from here}

dear 2010,

thank you for chicago. and boston. and tybee.

thank you for getaways, escapes, and the peace found there. 

thank you for holding our hands through decision-making, for bringing family and friends inside our home.

thank you for new opportunities, for graduations and fresh starts.

thank you for book club and sunday suppers and chew* chats and community.

thank you for friends, new and old.

thank you what you gave and yes, even what you took away.

you were a roller coaster ride.

winter was relaxing and quiet.

spring was stressful, filled with decisions and choices and hard things.

summer was lazy and a little bit lonely, but wonderful in its own way.

fall was not how i imagined it to be: bouquets of sharpened pencils, papers written, grades earned.

it was not how i pictured, and i've had a hard time letting go of what i wanted it to be.

but i'm learning.

i guess, for me, that's what you will amount to in my history books.

you'll be the year filled with some growing pains, with stretching and learning who i am and who i am called to be.

you were a blessing. each year is.

but you also introduced us to some challenges, and i'm ready to embrace a new chapter, to take the things i've learned from you and apply them to a new year.

my aim for 2010 was to live intentionally and simply.

some days, that was true. many days, i failed miserably.

the purpose of goals and resolutions, i think, is to keep aiming. we're not always going to succeed.

but we've got to keep trying.

you were the year i kept trying, the year i didn't give up.

that's good enough for me.