When I was a little girl, I couldn’t wait for winter to come.

Though, always a worry for our neighbors and friends, for me — it was an opportunity to charge wait-deep into the snow.

To spend hours alone in those icy winds, wondering if the snow ever grew tired of hugging those trees. My darlings, this was my greatest dream. To watch the flurries dance along the eaves, as December’s wintry breath formed delicate patterns against the windows.

Meanwhile, inside—a fire blazed ‘just for me.’ My father could warm anything with just a few twigs and a match.

In those days, time was measured by the sting against my cheeks. And, the snow’s depth gauged by the weight upon the limbs.

Oh, how lovely to experience a snow just like this. Even to this day, I’m reminded—that, no matter what, everything becomes new, once again.

“It’s a living book, this life” shares author, Donald Miller. “it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters.”

And so, on this day—my hope is just this:

“That your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?” – Donald Miller

My darlings, for you, this is my New Year’s wish.